BENEATH THE SURFACE
Part Eighteen
Remy LeBeau's first day at Bayville High was humiliating. He couldn't explain why walking up to the doors that Monday morning felt like he was being marched into a prison building. For the next year, he supposed it would be a prison, at least until afternoons and weekends. Already he felt the weekend couldn't come quickly enough.
Unlike the X-Men, he hadn't been made to attend the very early morning training session; he'd been awake nonetheless though. He'd heard the alarms going off in their rooms as they'd gotten up, heard their rummaging about getting ready. He'd been trying to sleep all night but it had come in broken pieces, usually awakened by bad dreams and horrible anxiety about sleeping in.
God, he'd never had that anxiety about sleeping in the first time he'd gone to school.
Other than his anxiety about school, he had Rogue to contend with. She'd been strange towards him all weekend, quiet and reserved. He'd tried to find time to be alone with her on Saturday morning, but she'd been busy with training with Logan, and then a mission had taken up almost all of her Sunday. He'd made a point of deliberately avoiding Tabitha; he didn't spend any time in the rec room in the next two evenings and had chosen to repaint his room again, this time a slightly lighter green colour.
He'd been sensing Tabitha's eagerness to try and get him alone since Saturday morning, had noticed her furtive glances at breakfast and had done his best to pretend to be none-the-wiser. To be sure she'd never find an opportune moment to get him alone during the weekend, he'd chosen to ask Scott and Kurt for their assistance in painting his room, and the two had been only too happy to help much to his pleasant surprise. Normally in small doses, Scott was only vaguely tolerable, but this weekend, Remy couldn't have been more glad of the company, and found it far more agreeable than usual, even surprised how eager Scott was insisting to stay and help when the first coat had dried and the darker paint beneath had still shown through and needed repainting.
It had taken four coats of paint, one trip to the hardware store for more paint and several rest breaks – all spent in the company of the two – before the job had been done and the room finally looked finished. He'd successfully avoided Tabitha all weekend too, although she'd been dropping in to see the progress of the room, seeming slightly awkward and put out that Scott and Kurt never seemed to be absent.
For all the work his room had taken, it still didn't feel any the more homely. Remy supposed that was due to the fact his bed was a single mattress on the floor pushed against the wall. The bed he'd ordered still hadn't arrived; he had to wonder where the heck the manufacturers were.
At Bayville High, Rogue showed him to most of his classes; he was almost relieved to find out they had most of the same classes other than he had a woodworking class while she was apparently attending home economics (which he admittedly wasn't too cut up about not attending) and a completely different gym class. His relief of being in the same classes as his wife was rather short-lived; as it turned out, he and Rogue had been assigned desks and they were rather far apart, usually several rows apart.
It felt alien, being in school again. He felt idiotic, trying to pay attention and being completely in the dark about the subjects. He knew math well enough to function rather brilliantly in the criminal world, he could calculate quickly, work out fractions hastily without a seconds thought but when the math teacher started talking about processes and variations and algorithms, Remy suddenly felt like a four year old sitting in a university lecture for rocket scientists.
Science class was just as bad. Chemistry. Having never attended a damn chemistry class in his life and being thrown into it? What kind of cruel joke was that? Had the Professor over-estimated his ability? Had he not tried to negotiate a different class with a slightly easier subject matter? At least Rogue was in his chemistry class, and when the students had been told to pick a lab partner (that would be their lab partner for the year) Remy had chosen Rogue hastily; he wondered if she'd have chosen him as quickly if he hadn't spoken up first. Science class, for the most part was supposed to be a "fun" experiment just to ease the students into the first day of term, but Remy didn't understand the point of the experiment and let Rogue do most of the work and simply (and rather slyly) copied down her findings to report to their teacher.
Gym class was basically running, he didn't mind that much because it required very little interaction with anyone. All day he'd been dealing with furtive glances from pretty little cheerleaders and shy looks from hipster geeks. Rogue, on the other hand, he could barely get one glance from during any class.
At lunch, he went to find Rogue at the cafeteria, but she was with everyone, which made it rather hard to hold a conversation. At the end of the table, he noticed Tabitha sitting looking rather thoughtful, she was quieter than usual, and even teasing and flirtations from Kurt couldn't seem to pull her out of it.
After lunch, he got lost on the way to French class, as Rogue had slipped away from lunch early to go to the bathroom. He'd almost followed her, but thought it might seem a little too obvious, and he didn't need her complaining about the others finding out about them on the first day of school.
The French class had been his most embarrassing class of the day. It bothered him somewhat because he'd almost looked forward to the class merely for the fact he was so fluent in French he should have looked rather clever in comparison to the other students who had made him feel rather inferior throughout every other class with their silent laughter and looks of disbelief at his ridiculous answers to various questions every teacher posed.
In French class, the teacher - Madame Fontaine (he thought it sounded more like a psychic medium than a teacher) - was French, and whenever he'd answer (to what he felt was the best of his ability) any of her questions in French, she'd smack her pointer against his table rather loudly and tell him to be clearer, that his French was atrocious, that she couldn't understand him at all. As he'd never had trouble in France whenever he'd visited, he could only suspect the teacher had taken an immediate disliking to him (the fact he wouldn't take his sunglasses off in class gave his identity as a mutant away, he realised, and this probably only added to the list of reasons why she would dislike him more).
He normally didn't embarrass easily, but he'd felt his face going red, his blood boiling and he'd had to bite his tongue from using a few choice words in French that he was certain would have had him expelled on his first day. What had been worse about the class was that Kitty Pryde and Kurt Wagner had also been in that same class, and had heard every exchange, he was certain he'd even heard Kitty giggling (he'd have been more humiliated if Kitty hadn't completely made an ass of herself during the next question).
English was his final class of the day, and it was definitely the easiest of the day but that was only because the teacher had decided to give a rather easy assignment of asking the students to write down about the experiences they'd had over the summer. For the most part, he'd sat there unsure what to really write about, glancing over to Rogue every now and then who was two desks away wondering what she might be writing about herself. His page had remained empty for almost half an hour of the period, other than his name and the date at the top of the crisp sheet of lined A4.
Lets see, he thought dully as he stared down at the paper, what'd I do this summer? I was put in an arranged marriage, I eloped wit' someone who was practically a stranger, fell madly in love, watched my adoptive father finish drinkin' himself t' death in time t' put himself in the hospital and die of heart failure, buried him, had my dirty laundry aired in front of my wife by the man I'm sure is in love wit' her. Then we went t' St. Tropez where I got drunk damn near every night, started seein' ghosts, had sex wit' my wife f' the first time and saw his face on her, then got dragged back t' the states so I can be stuck in a minor league mutant trainin' scheme and pretend I ain' married and ain' in love...
He stared down at the paper. No, that wouldn't quite do.
He wrote some nonsense down, mostly about road trips. He made up a story about how he'd went to Las Vegas with a girl called Marie, and then how they had went to St. Tropez on an exciting week vacation. He talked about white sands, and sunshine, visiting the water front and being on a yacht...leaving out all the condemning and juicy details of what had really happened. He hope to god he'd never have to read it out – Rogue would be mortified even with how vague it all was.
When the class was over, he handed over his essay about his experiences to the teacher, and waited for Rogue out in the hall, sighing inwardly. The whole day had felt like a disaster, and he didn't really like the idea of having to repeat it tomorrow.
Rogue stopped in the hall, seeming to be surprised at his hanging to wait for her. "Oh, there you are," she said, almost as if she'd been looking for him. He didn't quite believe she had.
"Yeah, well...I'm not sure which way is out, so...I follow you," he lied. He knew perfectly well which way was out; finding an exit was never a problem. The rooms here however all looked the same and were rather difficult to find.
Rogue was shoving a book into her backpack; they'd been handed out at the end of the class, their assignment was to read it, and Remy already couldn't even remember what it was. He had his in the backpack that had been leftover from one of the Xavier's students from some time ago (he'd had to vacuum the dust off of it the night before, much to his chagrin).
"So..." Rogue said, "what'd you think of your first day?"
"I..." he looked around, "it was okay," he lied, not wanting to really complain in front of so many students passing by, all fighting to get to the same exit point. He also didn't want to start complaining when at least Rogue was making the effort to converse with him.
"You sure? You looked a little pissed off in French," Rogue confessed, "least from what Ah could see," she added, leading the way.
"That teacher..." he drew his breath.
"Yeah, she's always a bitch," Rogue commented, "Ah didn't have her last year, 'cause she went back to France for a while, but Ah had her the year before...she's a nightmare."
"Y' know...no one really complained about my French in St. Tropez," he muttered under his breath, backpack dangling from his hand.
"Yeah, well, in your defence, you had a ton of money on display in St. Tropez," she said, keeping her voice low, "that kind of makes up for it. No one is going to complain about someone's poor French when they're throwing around cash left right and centre, are they?" she pointed out.
Slightly insulted by her insinuation that perhaps he wasn't as fluent as he thought, he retorted, "How is it y' taken French so many years now and still can't even speak two sentences?" he asked, glancing towards her.
"Ah can't get my head around it," she sighed.
"Y' seemed t' know what y' was doin' in science."
"Well...Ah should," she pointed out, "Ah took the same class last year," she frowned.
"Oh yeah. This year shoul' be easy f' y' then," he supposed.
"You'd think," she replied. "God, Ah feel like such a dummy..." she sighed, "a lot of the kids we're in class with now...Ah was a year ahead before the summer started. The girl who was sittin' in front of me in Math...Ah had to ask her how to solve a problem in class...Ah'm sure two years ago she's the same girl Ah had to explain how to work a vendin' machine..."
Least I'm not the only one slightly embarrassed, he realised. "I'm...not sure this high school thing is really...me..."
"Oh?" she asked as they finally got to the double doors and left the building.
Remy followed to the direction of the parking lot, "it's jus'...y' know, my education wasn' this...formal. And...the teachers was up there in classes talkin' about things...I didn' know what t' make of any of it...I mean what the fuck is an algorithm anyway? And in science...Jesus Christ...I felt like...I was in Japan...didn' know what the fuck anyone was doin' or talkin' about."
"You know...Hank would help you with that, that's what he was...chemistry teacher."
Remy shook his head, "I don' need t' be takin' up any more of his time. 'Sides...he'd probably say that it's up t' me t' be payin' attention in class so I understand what this shit all means...maybe it's my fault f' not payin' attention."
"It's overwhelmin' at first," Rogue agreed, "you'll catch up..."
Remy felt his hand graze her gloved one, and he gave her a hopeful glance, wondering if she'd meant it to be deliberate. She didn't seem all that aware as they walked towards the parking lot; the van the students borrowed to take to school was always parked furthest from any other cars, in fact, it was parked in a rather vacant section of the lot. Any time he'd spied upon the young X-Men, he'd always noticed this.
"Why so far?" Remy asked, glancing across at the van sitting on its own.
"Everyone knows the mutant mobile here," Rogue sighed, "you park that anywhere near a student car, it gets dinged or scratched or keyed. We put it here where it can't get dinged or bumped by other cars..." she shrugged.
Remy glanced up, "and there's a security camera aimed right at it. So if anythin' happen t' it, y' can always get access t' see who do it."
"That too," Rogue nodded, she she adjusted her backpack on her shoulder.
"Y' know...it's nice gettin' a moment t' talk," he admitted, "whole weekend has been kind of...hectic, what with y' trainin' then y' goin' off on that thing..." he sighed.
"Yeah, it's been...crazy," she agreed.
"I tried t' get a hol' of y' by text and y' didn' answer."
"Yeah, my phone runs out of battery fast," she admitted. "I charged it last night, it was nearly dead when I looked at it at Lunch."
"Shoul'n' be dyin' that fast," he frowned, "lemme see..."
Rogue took her phone out of her pocket and handed him it.
Remy looked through the settings swiftly, "yeah, y' got the brightness turn up t' a hundred percent, y' got Bluetooth on f' what reason escape me completely as y' got nothin' t' connect it t'," he rolled his eyes, "and y' got the location services on...that drain y' real fast."
"Oh..."
"And so does Angry Birds," he commented, finding it rather quickly by double-tapping the home button and finding it in the open apps.
"Oh..." she chewed the inside of her cheek, looking down at the phone.
"Chere..." he took a deep breath, "be honest...y' been avoidin' me?"
"No!" she gazed up at him, "course not."
"Jus'...this text I sent y' on Saturday night has been opened..." he held up the phone, showing that she had received the text, "'cause it ain' showin' as an unread message."
"Ah didn''t get it until about eleven pm...Ah didn't want to wake you by textin' back. By mornin' Ah forgot...Ah'm sorry," she smiled feebly.
"I see," he held the phone out to her. He could see there was something uneasy about the way she'd answered, she wasn't being completely truthful and he couldn't imagine why. Had she been too preoccupied with Logan to be bothering with him? He'd begun to slightly worry less about their relationship but he wondered if perhaps he was letting his guard down too much when it came to that.
Or it's 'cause of that shit with Tabitha on Friday, he thought dully as he looked down at his wife who was gazing down at her phone.
"You've darkened the screen," she frowned, "Ah can barely see it..."
"It saves a huge percent of y' battery," Remy replied, "turn the brightness down in dim weather and at night, save y' eyes and battery..." he explained.
This shouldn't have been the discussion they were having. He should have been telling her about other things. About his insecurities, about his worries about school, about his thoughts about going to a psychiatrist, about Jean-Luc who was standing right behind her...
"Y' wan' go somewhere? Maybe get a coffee?" he asked.
Rogue paused, "we can't...you have a trainin' session at four-thirty, Remy," she reminded, "And Ah have all this damn homework...and so do you," she pointed out.
"Oh yeah," he muttered, frowning a little.
"Come on...the others will be arriving soon," Rogue pulled the keys to the van from her pocket and hit the electronic lock mechanism.
When they got into the van, the rain began to come down again; Remy gazed through the windshield watching large splatters distort the view of the school. For some reason, sitting in the van in the rain reminded him of the night he and Rogue had gone to the hospital to visit Jean-Luc, and he'd refused to leave the car. He'd sat there in the parking lot, adamant about not seeing him, folded arms, stubborn like a child.
If I'd gone, that'd have been the last night I'd have seen the bastard alive, Remy caught himself thinking. To try and distract himself swiftly from the horrible thought, he put his hand on Rogue's thigh.
"Remy, no," she admonished, "the others-"
"They ain' here yet," he forced a smirk, feeling nowhere near as flirty as he was trying to be. He pushed her skirt up a little, getting to the top of her thigh a little more.
Rogue pushed his hand away from her thigh, smoothing the skirt down, "Ah don't know how guys can just...think of sex just sudden like that," she confessed.
"Don't you?" he asked, glancing at her curiously.
"Not really..."
"Y' mus' think about it."
"If Ah think about it...somethin' makes me think about it. A movie scene...or a book...or a song..." she supposed, eyes watching the wipers on the windscreen slowly swish across to clear the splatters.
Remy touched the on button for the radio, "okay, then..." he said, he played with the buttons for a few moments, trying to find something suitable, "How about...this?" he asked, as Celine Dion's My Heart will Go On started belting out of the speakers on the doors.
"All that makes me think of is ice and dead people," Rogue commented, "thanks to Titanic."
"Okay..." he tried a different station, Air Supply's All out of Love was playing on a classic's station.
"Ew, no," Rogue made a face.
Remy tried another button, "oh, this definitely the one," he laughed as Rhihanna's S&M started playing, "Y' gon' tell me that don' do it for you?"
"Yeah, Ah am, actually," Rogue commented, a smirk playing about her lips.
"Surprisin'," he admitted, "usually goth girls int' a little whip and chain and all that stuff."
Rogue turned a little in her seat and stared at him darkly, "and what would you know about it?"
"Y' really don' wan' know," he responded.
"No, now Ah'm curious," she frowned, "one time you told me about you dancin' in stripper heels and a feather boa...now Ah find out about whips and chains? What exactly kind of kinky shit are you into?" she demanded.
"Nothin', really," he commented, wishing he hadn't brought up the subject at all now, "and like I tol' y' about the stripper heel incident, I was hammered, I don' remember much about it."
"You better forget it entirely," she warned, "that and whips and chains."
"So...I guess y' not much int' that Fifty Shades of whatever thing, then?"
"No," Rogue frowned, "never read it."
"What's the raciest thing y' ever read? And don' say Twilight, 'cause I might jus' take the rag f' wipin' the condensation off the window and shove in y' mouth."
Rogue shrugged, "Ah don't know. Ah don't read racy shit. If there's anythin' racy, it's sort of...incidental. It's not like Ah pick a book with the intention of readin' about sex."
"But y' read racy stuff, right?" he asked, trying to ignore Jean-Luc hanging around outside. At least he wasn't in the van yet.
"Not really."
"Oh c' mon, y' tellin' me y' vampire books, no one ever has sex."
"Maybe," she shrugged. "Ah guess sometimes they do, but it's usually tastefully written..."
"Can I ask somethin'?" he queried after a brief moment.
"Hmm?"
"How they have sex?"
"Pardon?"
"Vampires are dead, as in not alive. No life means no heartbeat, no heartbeat means no blood pumpin'...no blood pumpin' means the blood ain' rushin' t' the dick, therefore a hard on is virtually impossible...so...how the fuck they have sex?"
Rogue frowned, "Ah...didn't really think much about that."
"I bet...y' too busy wonderin' how it look when that Edward and Betty-"
"Bella," Rogue corrected.
"-Bella are doin' the nasty."
"Ah never thought about that, Ah didn't even like those characters. Ah only read the books 'cause Ah got them for Christmas."
"Right. And that's why y' decided t' call y'self Alice Cullen f' our weddin'," he smirked at her. "'Cause y' didn' like the characters."
"Shut up," she responded. "Wow everyone is takin' forever to arrive."
Remy glanced at the clock, he didn't much care for how long they were taking, getting time alone with Rogue for the moment was far more important.
Rogue was silent for a moment, she played with the radio for a moment, her expression absent, "has...uhm..." she began, "has Tabitha said anything to you since Friday?"
"Yeah," Remy replied.
"What?" she raised her eyes worriedly to him.
"Pass the salt," he answered.
Rogue frowned, "I'm serious."
"She ain' said nothin' t' me. I spent the weekend paintin' my room, remember? I didn' give her much opportunity t' get me alone."
"Remy...she said somethin' really weird when Ah went out to talk to her on Friday night..." Rogue began.
"Oh yeah?" he asked.
"She said-" Rogue began.
There was a noise and the van shook, and the smell of sulphur filled the air. Remy twisted round to look in the back of the van to see Kurt Wagner had teleported himself right into the seat behind Rogue.
"This rain is terrible!" said Kurt, staring out of the windshield. Remy didn't know why he was complaining, the boy hadn't even gotten so much as a droplet on him.
Rogue clammed up immediately on the subject, Remy had expected her to. Instead, she twisted around to talk to Kurt, "where are the others?"
"Some kids are having a rap battle in the hall – it's kind of hard to get past 'cause everyone is stopping to watch," Kurt complained. "I slipped into a class room that was empty and took a shortcut – avoided the rain in the process," he grinned. He leaned forward between the seats, "so, Gambit, how was your first day?"
"Oh, it was a piece of cake...if I happened t' be a rocket scientist, which...by the way, I ain'," he shrugged. "I'm not so sure Bayville High is really f' me."
"Why?" Kurt blinked.
"I felt like I was havin' some kind of weird stroke in the Math class, it was like an alien language..."
Kurt cleared his throat a little, "I...saw what happened in French class...that was really harsh."
Remy frowned, he didn't need reminding of it. "Wasn't quite as horrible as Kitty's little faux pas in French."
"What did she say anyway?" Kurt asked. "I thought it sounded like fillet of steak to me..."
"No," Remy frowned, "she tol' the teacher that she wanted to eat her grandson."
Kurt laughed, "so that's what she said...no wonder the teacher looked so annoyed."
Remy decided to be daring, "y' know, back in Louisiana, a mistranslation actually got me laid once..."
Rogue snapped her head around to look at him. He could feel the thin ice he was treading on, but he supposed Rogue couldn't exactly tell him off about talking that way in front of her if they weren't technically together as far as anyone else knew.
Kurt leaned forward a little more, "it did?" he asked, almost fascinated and slightly shy about it.
"You never told me that," Rogue said pointedly, frowning a little.
"I thought I had?" he asked, "I tol' y' about the teacher in the closet, right?" he asked. "Durin' lunch break?"
"Oh..." she said quietly.
"You...seriously?" Kurt blinked.
"My French weren' that good...but the teacher wouldn' entertain any English in class, so I tried t' ask her if she'd help me practise my French...'cause I was gon' fail the test," Remy explained, "and this was actually when I nearly gave a damn about failin' anythin'. So anyway, I tried my best, I went through the French dictionaries, rehearsed what I needed t' sayand by damn I nearly had it..."
"What'd you end up sayin'?" Rogue squinted at him, she clearly did not like the story, and he was almost slightly amused to be telling it although he was sure he would pay for it later.
"Si vous avez le temps, je voudrais pratiquer plus que mon Francais avev vous," Remy said quickly and expertly, "And...it weren' until she held me back after class that I foun' out I'd asked her if she had the time, I'd like t' practise a little more than my French wit' her..."
"Oh man," Kurt laughed hysterically.
"So...we...retired t' the janitors closet, which she...happened t' have the key for. I got an A+ in French that year."
"That was last year?" Kurt asked casually, Remy wasn't sure what he'd implied to suggest so.
"It was ninth grade," Remy shrugged, he watched the windscreen wipers swish once to sweep the water from the glass, not that it made much difference, the rain was a little heavier now, still distorting his view.
"Ninth?!" Kurt asked, sounding rather startled.
"Yeah, I was about...what...fourteen, fifteen...somethin' like that," Remy supposed.
"That's...really wrong," Kurt admitted.
Remy paused, "it is?" he asked.
"Well...you were...young..." Kurt said tentatively, "didn't she kind of...take advantage?"
Rogue's expression was slightly clouded, he caught it. He knew right then what she was thinking, she was thinking of the other times he'd been taken advantage of, more than just by women.
Remy tried to bluntly snub that thought, "if y' had seen my ninth grade teacher, y' wouldn' look at it that way. 'Sides, what fifteen year old gon' pass up that opportunity t' be wit' a thirty year old gorgeous blonde wit' double D's? I'd have been more of an idiot t' not take that opportunity," Remy pointed out casually.
His wife's eyes seemed to blaze with anger, "You know what?" Rogue asked, "Ah've kind of heard enough of the guy talk."
"Sorry," Kurt said quietly, sounding quite embarrassed.
"C'mon, Rogue, y' one of us, right?" Remy smirked, "what's a few stories 'tween friends?"
Rogue frowned, "Oh, so it'd be okay if Ah just started talkin' about periods, then?"
"If y' like," Remy shrugged.
"No! Please," Kurt begged from the back of the van.
"Don' bother me, talk about whatever y' like, tell me all y' dirty lil' secrets, the more the better," Remy replied, his eyes moved to the parking lot which was beginning to grow more and more empty, he could spy the others approaching, Kitty Pryde was balancing a large stack of books in her arms as she stood in the heavy rain saying goodbye to a girl she seemed to be friends with. Remy frowned a little, Jean-Luc was there, standing by her, his hand poised beside the books.
Don' you dare, Remy thought at him.
"Please don't," Kurt pleaded of Rogue.
"You didn't as him to not tell his story," Rogue pointed out.
"His wasn't...gross."
"In your opinion, maybe," Rogue frowned.
Remy glanced back to check on Jean-Luc's whereabouts, now he had vanished.
Suddenly, without reason, the van's alarm started to go off loudly, startling all three of them and the approaching others. Rogue gasped and quickly accessed the button to switch it off.
"What the heck?" she asked in bewilderment.
Remy tried to still his sudden thundering heart beat, "That do that often?"
"Never," Kurt spoke up from the back, "Must be a fault...I will have a look when we get home."
"No," Rogue grunted, "lets get Hank to do it. The last time you messed with this van, the garage door started opening and closing every time we tried to switch the ignition on," she muttered.
"I was trying to save time by having the garage door open at the same time as the ignition went on," Kurt pouted.
"Sounds like an idea t' me," Remy tried to appear invested in the conversation to hide his suspicion that Jean-Luc had been the one to turn that alarm on.
The others began to pile into the van one by one, Remy glanced over his shoulder, counting heads.
"What happened with the alarm?" asked Ray, sweeping rain water from his face.
"Ah guess the van was stationary too long and the alarm activated or somethin'," Rogue shrugged.
"Where's Tabitha?" asked Kurt curiously, looking outside, "I saw her leaving her last class...she should have been here by now..."
"I thought I saw her about ten minutes ago, maybe she's still watching that rap battle," Bobby said, "Let me text her..."
"She's holdin' us up," Rogue muttered, glancing at her watch anxiously. "Ah've got a lot to do today."
"Tabitha's been a little quiet all day," Kurt admitted, "I'm worried about her...she's not usually so quiet."
"Her tossing and turning kept me up all night," Amara complained. "If it's the same tonight, I'm asking the Professor for a room transfer. I'm exhausted."
Remy scratched his cheek absently, what was keeping Tabitha awake? Nightmares, like him? Or just bothered by the things said on Friday night.
"She says she's on her way, she'll be another few minutes," Bobby spoke up, receiving a text back.
"She say what took so long?"
"Someone glued the lock for her locker, she says she couldn't get her jacket or her books," Bobby replied.
After a few more minutes, Tabitha was seen leaving the front doors of the school; Remy watched, seeing a guy about his age say something to her, she frowned a little and shook her head and walked off as if to dismiss him. The exchange was rather odd, he thought and he wondered curiously what it had been about.
Tabitha got into the van, her t-shirt almost soaked, her expression bored, "sorry I'm late, stupid locker."
Amara eyed Tabitha up, "Where's your jacket?"
Remy realised the girl was right, Tabitha did not have her jacket, nor did she have books with her.
"They couldn't get it unlocked, so I have to wait until tomorrow," Tabitha explained, "anyone have gum or anything?"
"I do," Bobby spoke up, he went to offer her a piece, but she took the entire packet and popped them all into her mouth at once. "Uhm...you're...welcome," the boy frowned.
"So who glued the locker?" Amara asked; the way she said it, Remy could sense that the girl was simply picking at Tabitha rather than asking out of concern or curiosity.
"I don't know," Tabitha retorted, "could have been anyone. Could have been you for all I know."
"Why would I want to glue your locker shut?" Amara snorted, "You probably have half of my stuff in there."
"Shut up," muttered Tabitha coldly; the subject was dropped at that.
Remy tuned in and out of the exchanges in the back of the van. The journey seemed to be taking forever, and Remy was almost amused by the thought he couldn't wait to get home. He really hadn't thought much of the institute as home up until that moment.
Anywhere Rogue is shoul' be home, he realised, he glanced towards her briefly, he was surprised to catch her looking slyly at him. Her cheeks flushed a little, as they always did. One thing he'd come to become instantly attracted to when it came to Rogue was that almost every time their eyes met her cheeks would turn that soft pink, the colour of summer roses against her pale skin. Sometimes he wasn't particularly certain of her feelings for him, but there was some small comfort in the fact he was certain that she did feel attraction to him, the blushing always let it away.
He remembered reading something once about attraction; how the subtle signals a woman would give off, even unknowingly could make a man think of sex. The flush of her cheeks, the pink of her mouth, to somehow make a man unconsciously think of the exact shades of what was between her legs. Even the way a woman's mouth would swell on a good kiss, all reminders.
Except I never really got t' kiss Rogue...least not good and proper, he thought a little regretfully. It was a pity, he decided, as she was probably the one girl on earth he could have spent kissing for hours. He wistfully found himself thinking of how lost he imagined he'd be in her kisses, how once his lips touched hers he'd feel like a child in a candy store, unable to stop for the taste of it. Blood pumped through his veins furiously at the thought of it right them, pushing his thoughts away from his nightmares, his worries, his anxiety about Jean-Luc.
As Rogue pulled the van up the drive of the Xavier Estate, he brought himself back to reality, he could still hear all the chatter at his back, but one thing he did not hear was Tabitha. Normally she was chatting with the rest, but she was so silent, and that was worrying.
It occurred to him to turn and ask if she was all right but he knew better; put too much interest in, leave Rogue suspicious and Tabitha hopeful. He'd just have to be quiet and wait it out.
Remy turned to Rogue as she parked the van, "y' know," he picked up his backpack from the footwell where he'd had it sitting between his boots, "Since you an' I are in the same classes, Rogue, maybe we shoul' study t' gether," he suggested. He made it sound so very logical, so very sudden as if he'd just realised it.
"Maybe..." Rogue seemed to consider; for one moment he'd almost expected her to be reluctant about the subject entirely. Remy was certain he spied her glancing into the rear view mirror as if to look at Tabitha. Was she thinking at that moment it'd be wiser to try to appease him in the meantime or risk losing him to Tabitha? He almost for a moment caught himself wondering if it'd be worth playing that game with her just to make sure she actually spent time with him. He was perfectly capable of playing games if he had to.
Rogue took a moment glancing at her watch, he was certain she had a training session of some description with Hank.
"You have a trainin' session in the Danger Room with the New Mutants...and Ah have to learn how to use the new features Hank programmed into the Blackbird," Rogue explained, "But...we'll have a little time after dinner, if you don't mind missin' out on Rec room time...?"
"I don' mind at all," Remy said honestly.
"Okay, meet me in the library after dinner," Rogue said finally, "We'll plough through it then."
"The library?" he asked, eyeing her.
"Yeah...best place to study," she grabbed her backpack from the back, the others were starting to climb out.
"Won' that be a little noisy?" he asked pointedly. What he meant was that it would be a little too crowded for his liking. Why couldn't they go somewhere to be alone to study?
Rogue nearly laughed, "in the library?"
Remy stayed in the van, watching as the last person (Tabitha oddly enough) climbed out. As the door shut, he whispered quietly to her, "c' mon...we've been wit' people all day...can't we get some time t' jus' ourselves?" he asked hopefully.
"Remy...what good would that do? You think we're sneakin' away to screw around?" she rolled her eyes, "if we make a study date, we actually have to study..." she explained, "besides...it's not like we even have a lot of homework..." she pointed out. "It's mostly just readin'...Ah'm not sure why we even need to study together at all to be honest..."
"Y' know why," he muttered.
"No..."
"I don' understand a lot of this stuff," he sighed, "it's all fuckin' Greek and Gobbledegook t' me. If I have so much trouble in a fuckin' French class when I'm bilingual already, how the fuck am I s' pose t' get through chemistry and math?"
"Remy, you're not stupid," Rogue stated quite calmly. "And as for that French class thing. Ah think it's more that you were too good, Ah'm sure the teacher was just pissed that you actually sounded more authentic than she did."
"Rogue, she's fucking French, she's from Lyon," Remy muttered.
"Then maybe, Ah don't know, she thought you were bein' a smart ass, 'cause you actually knew the answer," Rogue shrugged, she got out of the van, slinging her bag over her shoulder, "My point is..." she said to him as he got out too and followed her, "is that you are not stupid..."
"Y' sound so sure," he muttered.
Rogue looked around the garage to make sure they were completely alone, then said, "Any guy who can turn askin' a question to a French teacher into a sexual proposal and manage to secure an A+ in the process can't be all that stupid," she frowned a little.
He looked at her, knowing the reprimand was coming.
"It's fine that you want to do some guy bonding with Kurt, Remy, it's nice, really," she frowned, "but don't go tellin' him or any other person here about your exploits," she warned.
"I thought it was funny," he shrugged.
"You don't get it," she hissed, "it's not funny, not in the least!"
He rolled his eyes at her and passed by her, "whatever."
"You go tellin' Kurt about the teacher," Rogue stood still, "you...tell Tabitha things..." she drew her breath.
Remy stopped at the door, he'd almost been about to go through it. He stopped, hand poised inches away from the handle, "what?"
"Tabitha...she says you tell her stuff..."
He groaned inwardly, he hadn't expected that to come back and bite him. The girl had her own secrets, didn't she understand she was supposed to keep his too? Didn't she at all identify with it? "What stuff?" he asked, turning around, pretending to be merely curious and confused, trying to convey he had no idea what this was about at all. He wasn't certain he could pull this off right now on top of everything else.
"Ah...Ah don't know," Rogue looked at him, "You tell me."
"I ain' tellin' her anythin'," he replied. He supposed in a sense he hadn't really. Hadn't told her much more than a few very vague things that could have been up for interpretation.
"She said you told her private stuff...she wouldn't even touch it when Ah asked," Rogue hugged herself.
"Marie," he said, his voice flat and tired, "Tabitha is in her own little world, she has a crush, that's it and if I tell her I like pastrami, she's gon' think it's private stuff that no one else ever share wit' me," he muttered.
"If you and her are talkin' about things that...that you aren't talkin' about with me..." Rogue began.
"Chere...Tabitha don' know anythin' about me that you don't," he said truthfully. "I ain' tol' her anythin'."
"Promise?"
"Promise," Remy lied, it made him sick to the stomach to do so. "So after dinner...library?" he sighed.
"Yeah..."
"I'll be there."
End of Part Eighteen
Just a short and somewhat uneventful weekend update but one nonetheless. Not the most exciting of chapters but I know a few were interested to see how Gambit would cope with being a student, lol. I'm sure a few were expecting him to be written (as he usually in such stories) as being good at everything and liked by everyone, etc. This was probably a little blah in comparison, lol.
Anyway, I'm off to watch Breaking Bad and then sleep. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and thank you so much for all the reviews, you guys are awesome :)