Remy's Diabolical Plan

Chapter Twenty: Of Diabolical Flashbacks Part Two

~X~

It only took hours upon hours of intense thinking, more mind changing than she had ever put herself through, and a lot of avoiding looking directly into Remy's eyes before Rogue finally came to a decision.

For a whole day she had done nothing but sit on the porch and stare blankly out at the beach. Upon the realization for her feelings for Remy, she had sunk into this sort of shocked state. There were too many questions that she had for herself that she couldn't answer. Like why she didn't know it sooner. How could she have been so blind? The anger that had welled in her whenever Jessica was mentioned should have clued her in. Or how come she couldn't have figured this all out sooner, before that woman was in the picture? And that brought her to her third question. What was she going to do about her?

Because after all these hours thinking it over and wondering what was wrong with her, Rogue had come to one firm decision. She was going to tell Remy how she felt. It would be hard. It might be the hardest thing she had ever done. There was a lot that she could lose if she told Remy how she felt. Her best friend, her team-mate, the man that she was in...feelings with. There was certainly no guarantee that Remy would understand, much less feel the same. Rogue expected him to let her down. He didn't want Rogue, he wanted her.

But Rogue wasn't stupid. Remy hadn't made a commitment to that woman, not yet anyway, and if there was ever going to be even the slimmest chance that she would get what she wanted, then she had to tell him now. If only she could have learned to listen to her feelings from the very beginning...

~Seven Months Earlier~

The Xavier mansion was up in arms. The inhabitants were running rampant in circular motions whilst screaming in a panicked manner. Because if there had ever been a time to panic, it was most certainly now, on this cold, rainy December night. There was no doubt about it, the apocalypse was on them now!

Or at least that was how they felt. They were up in arms, sure, but not all of them were running in circles and screaming. That was only Tabitha and Bobby because they thought it was funny and appropriate to the mood. Kidding aside, the problem that they now faced was serious.

Tonight was Charles's turn to pick dinner. And he had chosen Indian food.

This of course caused an uproar. Their Professor was the only person in the entire house that liked Indian food. No matter what they were all stuck with this decision, since he was, after all, paying for it. Ororo, Hank, and Logan had been no help at all. Once they had heard Charles say what he wanted to eat, they had suddenly announced that they had made plans for themselves earlier in the week to go out tonight. For some downtime they said. Without kids they said.

"You guys are EVIL!" Bobby accused dramatically.

The three practically ran out of the house, ignoring the cries for help behind them.

Charles happily hung up the phone and turned to them. "Supper should be here in forty minutes to an hour. Who's up for a game of cards?"

They all launched into all the reasons that he should order them something different, the reasons for this ranging from, 'I'm allergic to Indian food', to 'it hurts my stomach', and then to Charles's personal favorite, 'I hate Indian food!'. The Professor blew them off, rolling past them to pull a deck of cards from a nearby drawer. He didn't see the need in telling them that he had ordered them pizza a half hour ago. This way they would appreciate him more.

He was settling in front of the kitchen table, having decided on playing a game of solitaire when the doorbell rang. This wasn't a surprise either. It was probably Gambit, whom Charles had been speaking to for the past six weeks. He had visited with him several times already, but hadn't spoken with any of the kids, as of yet.

All should be good. Last week there had been a very long meeting with every resident of the house, the main subject being Gambit. The man wanted to join, was honestly trying to clean his life up. Charles was at least sure of that much—as Gambit's mind and memories had told him. But he hadn't felt comfortable, nor right in agreeing to let him join if it wasn't going to be ok with all of the other members of the team. Most of them trusted Charles and his abilities and hadn't needed much convincing. Even Logan had eventually agreed to let him join, but only after a good amount of grumbling. The main one that had a problem with it was Rogue, and Charles could understand that. He didn't want to pressure her, or make her feel like she had to agree. They had slowly talked it out, just the two of them.

Her main concern was trust. From knowing Rogue for the past few years, Charles knew her enough to know that the hardest thing for her to do was trust. Rogue didn't like liars, loathed them. Once she gave you a chance, that was it. No second or third chances. And Gambit had already used up his one chance back in New Orleans.

Another concern she shared was that Gambit was annoying. Charles had decided to be very patient on this subject.

Eventually, they came to a very tentative agreement. As long as Gambit didn't betray any of them, and he wasn't too annoying, Rogue wouldn't squeeze his neck until his head popped off.

Charles, heading to answer the front door (with all the kids behind him still begging), felt a touch of worry at that last thought. Surely she wouldn't do that. It seemed like it would be easier for her to drain him.

Rogue, walking behind the professor and grumbling about Indian food, was thinking on the same subject. If Gambit so much as thought of betraying her or any of her friends, she was going to jump on his back, put her arms around his neck, and squeeze until his head popped off. She could just drain him, sure. But that ensured that she would lose her mind, i.e. her control, and could accidentally end up killing everyone else in the process. So popping his head off seemed like the better alternative.

Rogue wondered if she needed a therapist.

All of the yelling, the arguing, and the thoughts of murder ceased once Professor X opened the door. Gambit stood under a light drizzle, his leather duster the only thing protecting him from the cold. The duffel bag slung over his shoulder indicated that he was there to stay. He looked a little surprised at being greeted by everyone, but smiled lightly, holding up two fingers in a wave.

"Hey."

"Hi Gambit," all of them minus Rogue responded at exactly the same time, all with big smiles on their faces.

It was kind of creepy, actually.

Right at that second, something very unordinary was happening in Rogue's chest. If she had to be totally honest with herself, it was like her heart had just beat for the first time. Very odd indeed. She decided to brush it off on the full moon. When the moon was full, crazy things happened. She also attributed her tingling skin and shaky legs to this. That's probably all it was.

~Present Day~

There was only two problems with Rogue's decision. One being that she was a self professed chicken. However, this, Rogue found, was easily fixed.

After half a bottle of wine. That sounded bad, but it was only two glasses. And as it turns out, Rogue was very pleased to discover just what a freakishly mellowed out person the wine made her. She wasn't drunk, not in the slightest. Just...calm.

And so it was in this state that she was able to seek out Remy, finding him reading a book on the back porch.

"Remy," greeting him, Rogue casually slipped into the chair next to his, feeling completely at ease.

"Rogue." The book disappeared into his back pocket and he stood, studying her. "Why you look like that?"

She found herself shrugging. "It's nothin. But I gotta talk to you."

"Okay."

Normally it would make sense that this would be the point where she should start to panic. Luckily, thanks to the wine, Rogue felt no panic nor the need to run away in the opposite direction. All there was in her harmonious mind was the soft tweedledee of little song birds and the gentle rush of the sweetest summer wind to calm her nerves.

This stuff was great!

"Well, Remy," she started, firm in her decision to tell Remy. And tell him EVERYTHING. "There's a few things I've gotta tell you. First off," she held up a finger, "you have got a great butt." Ignoring his startled expression, she continued, holding up another finger. "Secondly, I really hate that Jack guy. He was seriously annoyin' as hell. Thirdly-"

"Wait, go back to the butt thing-"

"Thirdly," she went on, deaf to his interruption. "I hate to admit it, but Pyro—or John, whatever he wants to be called, was a damn good-"

"Rogue!" Kurt skipped out onto the back porch, holding out the phone. "There's a call for you."

Without asking, Rogue swiped the phone out of his hand and lazily brought it up to her ear. "Yeah?"

"Rogue!" A sickeningly happy voice that she had hoped to never hear again greeted her. "Oh Rogue, it's so wonderful to hear your voice again! After our date the other night, I was really worried that you wouldn't want anything to do with me again! I must have done something wrong that night. Whatever it was, tell me now! And I promise you, I'll fix it. I'll do whatever I can to win you back because I—I! I love you Rogue! I LOOOOVEEEE YOOOOOUU!"

The Southerner's eyebrows came together in confusion. "Who is this?" Without waiting for an answer, she hung up and tossed the phone back at an unsuspecting Kurt's head. As he was dodging it, Remy swooped down, moving in very close to Rogue's face.

And she grabbed her chest when her aching heart nearly busted out of her from seeing him so close!

Briefly, Remy wondered why Rogue was grabbing at her breasts.

Then he understood. "Hey chére," he smirked, "you been drinkin?"

There was the briefest of moments where her face was breaking into a stupid grin. That was before horrifying-ness of the situation hit her. It was either the 'horrifying-ness' or common sense that told her what to say next, Rogue couldn't be sure which it was.

"I'm gonna go lay down." And lay down she did.

~X~

So that didn't turn out the way that she had hoped. At all. But it was okay because Rogue had a plan. Hell, who was she kidding? She didn't have a plan! Still though, for whatever reason, Rogue rose the next day in a better mood, full of courage. Today was the day that she would tell Remy how she felt.

And so she had to tell him.

This time she found him sitting in front of the TV. He smirked by way of greeting.

"Not a word." she warned. Settling into the chair opposite the couch, she quickly stilled her shaking legs. "Before you say anything, I gotta tell you somethin'."

Obeying her command, he turned his attention on her.

That was when she froze. She couldn't do this! What was she thinking! He was going to laugh her into next week. There was no way that she could tell him. And at the same time, there was no way that she couldn't tell him.

Steeling herself for the worst, Rogue took a deep breath. "Remy, I'm-"

"Hey guys," Kurt strolled into the room, snatched up the remote, and started switching channels. "What's the weather like?"

Her eye twitching, Rogue rounded on him. "Why don't you look outside!"

"Jeez!" Kurt exclaimed. "What's your problem?"

Both guys looked to her for an answer. "Um...nothin'." she grumbled and thrust a finger towards the big TV screen. "I think it's supposed to rain tomorrow."

"And today is all sunshine," the pretty, red haired female news anchor was saying, "but tomorrow we should be expecting thunderstorms. So all those summer picnics will have to be moved inside."

"Do they have to train to be able to talk like that?" Kurt asked as he watched. "They talk normally for a moment then the last thing they say always has this dramatic feel to it."

"Do not play outside in the thunderstorm." a male news anchor was saying seriously. "You could be struck by lighting that way. This should be a big storm so there is a possibility of some flash flooding. If that happens in your area, get to high ground." He stared into the camera sternly and Rogue shuddered. It was like he was looking straight into her soul. "Do NOT drown." The man said very dramatically (and quite seriously).

"See!" Kurt pointed at the TV.

"During any bad storm there is always the possibility of losing electricity." The red haired woman was back and smiling. "If that happens, go online to www dot-"

"How are we supposed to go online if the power is out?" Remy asked.

"Also on the page are many different recipes to better enjoy your day!" The woman said cheerfully, despite her ominous warnings of flash floods and no electricity.

Kurt rose from the couch, laughing excitedly. "I've gotta see Scott's face when he hears about this. He's gonna freak!"

Smirking, Remy stood and followed. Rogue made no move to stop him, though, her courage had already left her. Miserably, she groaned into a palm.

But she still had to tell Remy. It couldn't matter how it might turn out. Now she had to put her trust in something that she couldn't trust. Just as she done to start this whole thing.

~Seven Months Earlier~

Being the former ally of the mutant whose one desire was to destroy all of mankind, including the X-men, apparently did not bode well for Remy in his new settings. Everyone was nice enough. But no one trusted him. Besides the Professor, no one talked to him all that much. No one cared to spend time with him. And no one really liked him.

The Cajun had known, of course, that things would be this way. Still, it wasn't exactly an easy or pleasurable new lifestyle. For the first time in his life he was forced to be wholesome and good and to work with other people, because the main thing that the X-men wanted out of all it's members was team work. He wasn't used to teamwork. He was used to doing everything on his own. It was easier that way. Nothing was easy or fun anymore. Nearly fed up with it all he decided to give it three more days. If things weren't better in three days, he was out of here. After that he could honestly say that he had tried the good guy thing and it just hadn't worked out.

But then a wonderful thing happened. Two mutants robbed a local gas station. The city of Bayville cried for the X-men. The X-men responded by jumping onto the scene and tracking down the robbers.

Everything was going normally. They were in one group, searching on foot through the streets and back allies of downtown. Everyone was ignoring Remy. Scott was leading the group and obsessively looking at every footprint and speck of dirt with a magnifying glass.

Then all of sudden, Scott slipped on a banana peel. It might have been funny if he hadn't hit his head on the curb and said curb hadn't left a nasty gash above his ear.

So with blood trickling out at (what seemed to them) an alarming rate, Jean rushed Scott off to the hospital and the rest of them split up into groups.

It wasn't a surprise to Remy when he turned out to be the only one without a partner.

The look on his face when he realized this caused Rogue's insides to tie themselves into a series of guilty knots. Professor X had told them to be courteous and to welcome him to the team, to give him a second chance. It turned out that being so forgiving was harder to accomplish than any of them had originally thought. It wasn't easy forgetting that the man that was now fighting at your side had attempted to kill you on more than one occasion in the past. Not only that, but he had lied. And lied and lied. If there was anything that Rogue hated in this world more than cats, it was liars. She supposed this hatred of liars probably stemmed from Mystique. But she wasn't willing to think on it too much.

But now Gambit was standing there, and looking like that and something about his expression reminded her of how she used to feel around the X-men. They don't like me. I don't like them. Why am I here. I don't belong.

She wasn't the type of person to let her emotions rule over her decisions. Right then, she told herself that it was because she wanted to follow the professor's requests.

"I'll go with the Cajun." Without looking in his direction, she could guess what kind of look her was giving her now. Everyone else stared.

Finally they separated.

Gambit fell into step next to her, neither of them saying a word.

~Present Day~

Rogue finally found him on the front porch. His crossed legs were propped up on the railing in front of him and he read (if judging by the cover was anything to go by) an erotic novel. Rolling her eyes, she leaned against the railing to face him and cleared her throat. The book was gone in a flash and he was suddenly the picture of innocence.

"A little bird told Remy that he's got a great butt." He grinned. "You know anythin' bout' that?"

The skin of her face burned at the memory, but she wasn't going to let it stop her. Remy had to know.

While it wasn't her ideal way to spend the day, Rogue knew that it had to be done. Now or eventually, he had to know. It might not seem important to anyone else for her to tell Remy something that could potentially rip their friendship apart. Even a part of her knew how precarious the situation was, and that part of her threatened to shut her up. Every time that part of her mind tried to speak up, she pushed it back down. If she listened to it and kept quiet, she would be breaking her word on a very important deal that she had made with Remy months ago. That deal was the foundation of their friendship. It was one of the only reasons that she had even given him a second chance. He had promised her that he would never lie to her again. In return, she had promised the same.

~Seven Months Ago~

They had spotted the robbers first. And somehow they had become separated during the process of chasing them. And while they had finally cornered them in the same alleyway, Remy at one end and Rogue at the other, neither knew that the other was there.

It ended up being Remy that confronted the suspects first. His initial plan had been to corner them, beat them up, and drag them back to the police station, along with the stolen goods. This plan changed as soon as he rounded that corner, poised to attack.

The robbers were two wide-eyed, terrified kids. He didn't ask how old they were, only judged them to be early teens if not younger. But they weren't just any random teenagers. Remy instantly recognized them as Morlocks. Dirty, shaky, scared, freezing, starving Morlocks. There was no telling when their last meal was. Both of them were barefooted. Both of them were bone-skinny. While he had decided to join the X-men so that he could do the right thing for once, Remy had to wonder if turning these kids in was, in fact, the right thing to do.

It wasn't. He didn't know if he belonged where he was, he didn't know if the X-men would ever accept him, but Remy knew that letting those two go was the right thing. And if Xavier asked him, point blank if he had done it, he would tell him that yes, he had done it. If they didn't like it then he would leave. They didn't want him anyway.

There was at least a whole minute of silence, as he and the pair of Morlocks locked eyes with each other, the two starving kids clutching the food to their chests.

He didn't break eye contact as he slipped his bow staff to the ground, digging it into the hole of the sewer grate and flipping it open.

"Go." Was the only word he spoke to the two.

They stared at him for another second, unbelieving, before they both darted past him and jumped into the sewer.

It was when he was closing it up behind them that he saw Rogue at the other end of the alley, watching him with wide eyes.

She saw him. Which meant that she was going to tell on him. He was going to get kicked out of the X-men. It also meant that she would probably go after those kids. But Remy wouldn't let it happen. It wasn't like he knew them. He'd never met them, never spoken to one Morlock. It wouldn't benefit him in any way to defend them. The only thing that he had to defend his actions was his own memories. He'd been there, he'd been one of those kids before. So hungry that his bones hurt. Cold and alone.

As Rogue approached him, his fingers tightened around his weapon. Finally she stopped a few feet in front of him, her eyes unblinking, calculating. She looked him up and down and seemed to be confused by what she was seeing.

"Are you for real?" The air coming from her mouth was visible in the winter air. "I mean...do you mean it. Do you really wanna join us or is it another lie?"

One of his eyebrows arched. Of all questions to ask him right then, she asked that? A large part of him was wary of this approach. He couldn't dismiss the suspicion that she was trying to distract him, just so she could go after the Morlocks. Slowly, unsurely, he gave a nod.

"No," she said, clearly irritated. "I want you to say it. Say you want to join us. Say you ain't gonna lie anymore."

He blinked. Say he wouldn't lie anymore? All he had been doing this past week was tell the truth. All he had ever done was lie and cheat. For once he wanted to be the good guy. So if she had to hear it, he had no problem saying it.

His eyes found hers. "I wanna join the X-men. And Remy won't lie no more. I promise."

There was small smile that lifted the corner of her mouth. Firmly she stepped forward, placing a foot on the sewer grate, and outstretched a gloved hand. "I promise too. I won't lie neither."

Unsure of this turn of events, Remy felt a smile touch his own lips. He slipped his hand into her grasp.

They shook.

~Present Day~

Rogue opened her mouth to begin her much-practiced 'I love you, Remy' speech. But all that came out was this really weird squeaking sound. Like a car with really bad brakes. It was weird. Clearing her throat, she attempted to speak again, but this time Remy interrupted her. So he could talk about, of all things-Jessica. An uncontrollable loathing filled Rogue. She really wanted to scream in frustration at that point but somehow managed to hold it in.

"You know what I love about her the most?" Remy asked, crossing his arms and staring wistfully off into the sunset.

Rogue could feel one of her eyes twitching. "What?" She growled rather than asked. Remy didn't seem to notice.

"The way she laughs." He laughed as though the thought itself was funny. "It's the kind of laugh that makes you laugh."

Her anger dissipated. When she studied Remy's expression, his twinkling eyes, the manner in which he spoke, something dropped in the pit of her stomach. Sadly she wondered if it could possibly be her heart.

"I'd do anythin' for her. Too bad she don't know it."

And just like that her resolve was lost. Remy was right. It was too bad that girl didn't know what she had. If she did, she'd at least know why Rogue hated her.

They had promised, both of them. They wouldn't lie. But what if telling the truth only served to hurt the other? Rogue decided, with a heavy heart, that she loved him so much, she wasn't willing to hurt him like that.

It was better to let him be happy.