Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men
The following morning the school was bustling with the news that there would be a Halloween party. To Rogue's surprise, the evil mind behind the party organization was her roommate (actually, it wasn't that surprising).
"Ah just can't believe you kept this from meh!" Rogue complained. She, Jubilee, Kitty and Tabitha were in the entrance hall talking about the party.
"I didn't get the chance to tell you, since there was all that mess with Bobby. I couldn't find the proper moment. But I was going to tell you!" Jubilee said in her defense. "I thought this school is in need of some fun."
"So, Rogue, are you coming or not?" Tabitha asked, trying to convince Rogue to go the mall with the three of them.
"Honestly, Ah don't really…" She tried to refuse but a bouncing Kitty interrupted her.
"C'mon, Rogueee! You need to come shopping with us! There is only two weeks left and so many things to do."
"Kitty, it's just a silly costume party. It's not like you'll be shopping for a wedding. Ah'll just get a white long gown for mah ghost costume."
"No way you're dressing like a ghost." Tabitha crossed her arms and crinkled her nose.
"But it's Halloween!"
"So, we are supposed to get decent costumes. Who the hell is going to look at you if you are all covered up with a freaking white gown?"
"Oh so the point is to dress up in a way that boys will look? And Ah thought it was about the party." She said sarcastically.
"Any ways, we have to find ourselves nice costumes before they are all gone and we have to dress up as clowns. And no white gowns, please."
"Mebbe a red babydoll will do, eh?" Rogue felt her stomach curl as Remy's hot breath caressed her ear and his hand crawled around her waist.
"Not even in your dreams, swamp rat." She snapped at him, and released herself from his grip with a twist. Remy gave her an irresistible pout, winked at the girls and turned to leave.
"Actually, in my dreams dere is no babydoll at all, chérie." He said over his shoulder and disappeared through the Rec Room door. Rogue's face turned bright red of embarrassment and anger.
"This man has serious problems." She looked at the three girls waiting for approval but Tabitha was still drooling over Remy, Jubilee had an annoying smirk on her face and Kitty couldn't stop giggling.
"Rogue…" Jubilee's smirk grew larger and Rogue felt a tingle of fear.
"Yeah?" she asked uncertainly.
"Remember what I said about the flirting?" Now she was truly looking like an evil mastermind.
"What about…" She stopped for a second, scared of her next conclusion. "Oh, no! No way in hell! Ah ain't flirting with him."
"Why not? It's perfect. He flirts with you, you flirt back. Bobby will snap."
"First of all: flirting with Remy is already bad enough. Second of all: flirting with him to piss Bobby off is even more ridiculous. Ah'm not eight years old anymore."
"But… ok, don't do it for Bobby. Just for the fun, chica. I bet Remy will be so surprised by it he will soon stop chasing after you, since he clearly only does this to get on your nerves. Isn't that what you want?" 'Checkmate.' Jubilee thought.
Rogue thought about it for a minute. Once in her life, Jubilee made sense. The thing is: she was starting to learn to have fun with Remy's jokes. After talking to him and spending some time together, she came to the conclusion he was a rather nice guy. But yes, he still liked to cross the line she always tried to establish with people. And that was annoying and made her incredibly uneasy, which he seemed to enjoy. So if he couldn't annoy her anymore, he would get bored and stop crossing the line. Meaning he would still be a nice guy she could even become friends with, without having reasons to want to punch him in the face. And all she had to do was flirt, something that she considered herself good at.
"Ok, you got meh. Ah'll try."
Kitty smiled and Jubilee did a victory dance. Tabitha was still drooling.
"Now, now. If you want to do it properly, we have to find you a nice costume for the party." Kitty said and Rogue nearly regretted her decision.
'What did Ah get myself into?'
After a few minutes of begging, Warren finally agreed to drive them to the mall and pick them up when they were done.
"Just make sure you finish today, alright?" he said to Tabitha while they got out of the car. She glared at him in return and closed the door.
"So girls, let's get started!" she said and ran into the mall, followed by Kitty and Jubilee, and a reluctant Rogue.
After searching in three stores, they finally found nice costumes with an accessible price. Rogue sat on a couch, waiting for Jubilee and Tabitha, delaying her torture moment. Kitty was sitting by her side since she had already picked up her costume.
"You know it's a miracle Jubilee didn't notice yet, don'tcha?" Rogue whispered. Kitty's head snapped up to look at her.
"What are you talking about?" she did her best to look innocent but her scared eyes were giving her away.
"You, Pete… do Ah really have to go on? It's like ya can't keep your eyes away from each other."
"Oh god, is it that clear?" Kitty asked, forgetting all her precaution. "I thought I was being discreet. And does he really keep looking at me? I mean, like, I thought it was just coincidence that he was looking when I was looking too."
"So you're not going out yet?" Rogue asked, having trouble to keep her voice low.
"You thought we were?" Kitty's face brightened.
"Yeah. It's clear he likes you, and it's been ages. Ah'm surprised you still have doubts about it."
"I know… but when the Professor died… I couldn't really focus on such things. But lately… oh, Rogue, he is so sweet and handsome."
"So go out with him."
"I can't!" she said a bit desperately.
"Why? Aren't ya girls the independent women?" Rogue teased.
"I'm shy. And so is he. What can I do?"
"You could try…" Rogue started but at that moment Jubilee showed up with a bunch of leather clothes in her hands and waved it before Rogue's face.
"Try this on! Now!" she demanded, sounding a bit scary in Rogue's opinion.
"Jubs…"
"Now! It's perfect for you and it's your size. Do it!"
"Alright, alright. Just watch out for your heart. You might end up in hospital one of these days." She stood up, took the leather clothes with an uncertain look and moved to the dresser cabin.
"What is it that you picked?" Kitty asked raising an eyebrow and Jubilee rubbed her hands.
"You'll see." And her smile grew when she heard Rogue groaning inside the cabin.
When they got back to the mansion, she could hardly walk. Her feet were screaming for mercy and her head was pumping, and all she needed to do was lay down. But as soon as she set her foot on the stairs bottom, Ororo walked in their direction.
"Jubilee, Rogue, Kitty! The Professor is waiting for the X-Men in the conference room in 5 minutes."
Tabitha looked at them pitifully and waved goodbye, while going upstairs. The other girls just moaned and turned around to meet the others. When Rogue got in the room, Bobby was sitting there, and when his eyes met hers, he gave her a little hopeful smile. She ignored that and sat down with Jubilee by her side. Kitty went to sit by Piotr's side and both of them blushed.
Remy blinked a couples times, surprised that Scott had come to his room and asked him to join the X-Men in the Conference room. Maybe Xavier was willing to trust him after all, even if he was new at that place.
'Dis man puts too much faith in people. Good for me.' He thought while putting a shirt on and going downstairs. All the X-Men were sitting at a round metal table already, and the only place left was at Rogue's side.
'Y' lucky bastard.' He grinned down at her, who just turned her attention to something else, and sat down.
At that very moment, Xavier started to speak but his attention was on her V-cut shirt. She stretched a little, trying to get rid of the tension on her back, and that only contributed to divert his attention even more from the Professor's words. All he could catch were isolated phrases like "… this power is hard to control…" and "… once it gets started, the only way to stop is overloading it…" but it didn't make sense at all. Bobby coughed a couple times, probably trying to get his attention. It was only when Logan kicked his shin and growled that he paid attention to what was being said. Mostly it was about the diamond and he realized it hadn't been that bad he only paid attention at that moment, since Magneto had already lectured him about that matter, so he had to face 40 minutes of boring details.
Rogue seemed to be bored as well, and her eyes were closing slowly, but Xavier didn't notice since he was looking at Scott or Hank most of the times, and Logan clearly pretended that he wasn't seeing. Remy couldn't help but hold back a chuckle while looking at her face. It seemed she was putting all her strength in staying awake and she would constantly snap her eyes open all of a sudden.
He took a card and a pen out of his pocket, wrote something and passed the card to her. He gave her a lopsided grin when she gave him a death glare and shove the card in his hands.
Well, it seemed she didn't accept his invitation to go to his room later so he could keep her awake.
He wrote 'too bad' on the back of the card and handled it to her again. This time it took a little longer for the card to come back, and he saw there was something new written in it: cut it, swamp rat.
And again he wrote: I was just being nice to you, petite. And the answer: Yeah, sure.
Remy: So which costume did you get?
Rogue: You'll see at the party. It sucks.
Remy quirked his eyebrows and she just shrugged, trying to look focused on what the Professor was saying.
Remy: What's the color of it? Red would be nice.
Rogue: It's black! Pervert.
Remy: You hurt my feelings, chérie :(
She glared at him again but chuckled when she saw he was pouting, looking at her from behind his auburn hair locks.
"Ok, so this is all I had to say. Hank and I will keep running tests on this gem, since it's crucial we know what Magneto is up to. Also, I'll try to track him down, so we can stop him before something bad happens. So, if you have no more questions, you're all dismissed." At that, Bobby just stormed out of the room.
Remy followed Rogue out of the door and when they got to the corridor he rushed to her side.
"Y' should apologize for breaking my heart, chérie."
She rolled her eyes but a smile was still finding its way through her lips.
"Ah didn't know ya had a heart, Remy. It's kinda shocking."
"Seriously, I'll accept your apologies if y' sleep by my side tonight."
And then she did something he really didn't expect. She approached him and ran a finger over his chest. He froze and kept his gaze locked on her.
"Ya really would like that, wouldn't ya Cajun?" she purred and he swallowed hard, nodding and thanking God his pants were loose enough. She moved closer, but still keeping a safe distance from his face and whispered. "Too bad for ya then. See ya, swamp rat." And, flashing him one last smile, she turned around and left, leaving an astounded Remy behind her.
'Where did this come from?' he thought, still in shock.
"Chicaaa, I saw that! I can't believe what you just did!" Jubilee was jumping around the room and Rogue blushed from her place on the bed.
"Ah just thought it was a good moment to take yer advices. And the amazing part is that it worked. You should've seen his face. It's like he suddenly realized Ah have two heads."
Both started to laugh and Jubilee sat on her own bed.
"How did it feel?"
"Hmm… Ah felt in control. It feels nice."
"Of course it does! I bet he didn't know what just hit him. I told you it would work."
"Yeah, if it had been any other person, Ah'd feel bad about it. But Remy really had it coming. Ah have to admit Ah never thought any of yer crazy plans would work, Jubs."
"Hey, they're not crazy. They are just different."
They spent an hour just laughing at the whole situation, until Rogue finally fell asleep and left Jubilee talking to herself.