Easing Mercy's car back into the garage at the Guild Hall, Rogue killed the engine. Leaning her head against the steering wheel, Rogue wondered if she could just hide out for a while before going back inside to deal with more nonsense. She hadn't called Remy back on the way home, trying to put off the questions about where she went.
Remy would be upset with her for not checking in, and the idea that he may have been worried bothered her. Hell, it bothered her that she was bothered by the idea of him being upset. Because that was the type of feelings you had for someone who was more than a friend and they weren't. They were friendly – maybe, friends – but definitely not more than friends. So she shouldn't be bothering, right?
Get ahold of yourself, Girl. You're not Guild. There's no reason you couldn't go into the city — to your own house — and make a few stops on the way back. Mentally shaking herself, Rogue sighed in irritation.
With that mental pep talk, Rogue heaved herself out of the car and slammed the door shut with more force than was probably necessary. Walking the short distance between the garage and the back of the house, Rogue stepped into the kitchen and quietly hung Mercy's keys back on the hook by the door.
"Dere you are," Remy said, walking into the kitchen.
"What do you have me LoJack'd or something?" Rogue muttered before glancing around for coffee. Seeing her alligator mug and a full pot of coffee on the counter, Rouse sent a mental blessing to Tante Mattie. Her head hurt from a lack of caffeine and food. She had not had nearly enough coffee to deal with today's events.
Remy snorted at that, "Non, mais not a bad idea, hein? After the meeting, I came looking for you, and Mercy says you'd gone into the city. Where you been at, Girl?"
"I went back to the house to pick up a few things since I seem to be staying here more often than not," Rogue replied, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice and focused on fixing her cup of coffee. Pouring a second cup – no sugar with a touch of cream – she handed it wordlessly to Remy.
"Add that took…almost four hours," Remy prodded, glancing at the clock and cocking an eyebrow at her before sipping his coffee.
"I don't need a babysitter, Swamp Rat." Rogue snapped.
"Did I say you did?" Remy scoffed, eyes flaring red. Softening, he looked at her again, "Are ya okay? You're rattled. Did something happen?"
Rogue felt the fight go out of her. Of course, Remy was worried. She hadn't been answering her phone. It wasn't fair to blame him for the day's events. Sitting down at the kitchen table, Rogue explained what had happened. Going to get her clothes, the visit with Madam LaCour, running into Julien, and then into Colt.
Rogue conveniently left out what Colt said about her being a valuable piece to the Guilds. She figured it was better not to put Remy any more on edge about his Daddy.
Remy listened without interrupting, staying silent even after she had finished speaking. Rogue traced the seams on her gloves, wishing he would say something.
"I know you are well trained, Cher, and you're right, you don't need a babysitter, but dere are things in Guild life you don't know about. So, if you need to go out, please take someone with you or keep your phone turned on. At least until the Boucherie is over." Remy pleaded gently with her.
Gumbo's right, Darlin'. Rogue felt a stab of guilt.
She knew better—she was trained better—than to go off into an unknown circumstance alone. Sucking up her pride, she gave Remy a small smile, "Okay, Sugah. To be fair, I hadn't realized my phone was on silent. I wasn't purposefully trying to ignore you."
Remy's face split into a grin, "I get that in writing, Cher?" Rogue groaned but laughed, thankful for Remy letting the subject drop.
"Dere you deux are," Henri said as he and Mercy entered the kitchen. "The Boucherie is all set for tomorrow night. Jean-Luc is letting everyone back into the Quarter tonight since the Assassins agreed to a ceasefire until then."
"Jean-Luc was able to get Marius to agree to that?" Rogue asked, surprised. Marius Boudreaux didn't strike her as a shrinking violet when it came to fighting.
"Mostly, it was Alden's doing." Henri rolled his eyes. "That man is very good at weaseling things out of people when he sets his mind to it."
"We're going out to Bourbon Street, Sha. You wanna come? Lord knows you probably didn't get a good impression of the city last time you were here." Mercy threw a side-eye at Remy, who was making a show of staring at the ceiling and whistling. Nodding, Rogue agreed.
A few hours later, Rogue found herself in the French Quarter with Remy, Henri, Mercy, Theo, and Emil, sitting at an elegant table set with a white linen tablecloth, china, and real silver, staring out of a window at the neon sign of a strip club called Barely Legal Hustlers.
Sweet Jesus. You need a passport to visit Bourbon Street. This place is a whole other world. Rogue shook her head snickering to herself.
Mercy had commandeered her for most of the ride into the city and at the restaurant. Rogue found herself enjoying talking to Remy's sister-in-law. Currently, Mercy was pleading with her to play Henri in pool.
"Please, Sha! I'm terrible at it, and Henri only makes me play so that he can beat me." Mercy begged, throwing in puppy-dog eyes for effect. Rogue might have felt bad for the blonde woman in front of her if she didn't have Remy's psyche snickering in her head.
Careful Cher. Mercy is a master of body language.
"That sounds like a personal problem. I don't get involved in other people's marriage issues." Rogue laughed, waving the other woman off.
"You a wise woman Rogue," Henri commented from the other side of Mercy. "Besides, I would let Mercy win. She just has to acknowledge that there are some areas that men are better at."
Rogue laughed. Henri was clearly baiting his wife, but that didn't stop Mercy from unleashing a torrent of French at him and whacking him in the arm with her napkin.
"You know I'm feeling mighty insulted there, Henri. I might need to take up the banner on behalf of women and your wife." Rogue drawled.
At the institute, everyone thought Jean was the ultimate girl's-girl, but Rogue had been raised in the South, where the sisterhood mindset had been around for generations. Down here, you couldn't insult one woman without insulting all of them.
"Attagirl!" Mercy beamed at her while Henri pouted in his seat, properly hushed. Rogue laughed again, knowing she had been played but couldn't bring herself to mind. She was having just as much fun as Mercy.
As food began to arrive, Rogue noticed Remy staring out the window. Turning to follow his gaze, she spotted Emeric and his group of followers getting into a cab.
"You know, Jean-Luc is pretty convinced that the Assassins are behind the killings," she murmured as the rest of the table began to dig into their food.
Remy snorted softly, "I'd be surprised if he wasn't, Cher."
"What if he's wrong?" Rogue asked.
Remy paused before answering, "Emeric has been causing trouble for months, but he wouldn't kill one of his own."
"But- "
"Thieves ain't assassins, Rogue," Remy cut her off. Rogue leaned back in her chair as Remy turned to say something to Emil and Theo. Rogue glanced out of the window, wondering which way the group had gone. The arrogant little thief got under Rogue's skin more than she cared to admit.
"-what you say, Rogue?" asked Emil.
"Huh?"
"Emil and Theo want to go to de bars. You wanna come with Cher?" Remy explained, turning back to her.
Rolling her eyes, she scoffed, "Nice try, Swamp Rat, but according to my ID, I'm underage."
Leaning in, Remy smirked at her, "According to Alvers, that didn't stop you when you lived with the Brotherhood." Rogue laughed at that.
The bar they ended up at was called Rambling Cup and looked like it had been around since before the city had ever existed. The warm interior had brick and plaster walls that were covered in music posters dating back to the 1930s. The floor was made of well-worn dark wood while tables with mix-match chairs filled the space. On the far side of the bar sat several pool tables.
The group moved towards the back of the bar near the pool tables. From somewhere, warm, bouncy notes of a piano, trumpet, and clarinet trio filled Rogue's ears. It wasn't the blues she had grown up with in Mississippi, but it made her heart long for something she couldn't quite name. A distant memory—or maybe one she never had— and couldn't quite remember.
Remy and Emil walked to the bar, a dark mahogany monstrosity that filled the opposite side of the bar and was carved with a riverboat scene across the front. Remy and Emil reappeared with a tray of drinks a few minutes later.
"Here you go, Petite," Emil handed Rogue a drink with a flourish.
Rogue eyed the drink, feeling like she had just been handed a snake, "What is it?"
"Mais, it's a drink." Emil grinned wider. When Mercy swatted him upside the head, he pouted at the blonde, "Well, it is. It's just a daiquiri."
"Basically, it's rum, lime juice, and sugar. I'd advise small glasses over a long period of time." Mercy said, throwing Rogue a knowing look.
"Thanks, Sugah. Good looking out." Rogue toasted Mercy with her glass before taking a small sip.
"You can repay me by beating Henri at pool," Mercy replied, jerking a thumb in her husband's direction.
"I'm game if you are Petite," Henri smirked at Rogue.
"Aww. You wanna get beat in front of your wife?" Rogue cooed back. Taking a sip of her drink, Rogue noted that it barely burned on the way down. Good Lord, that's dangerous.
Rogue ended up beating Henri soundly at pool, much to Mercy's enjoyment. She played a few more rounds, beating Emil twice and losing to Theo once. In a moment of poor decision-making, Rogue took a picture with Mercy and sent it to the girls back home. Only to immediately regret it when Kitty and the rest of the girls began texting that Gambit had introduced her to his family.
Rogue blamed the fact that she finished her first drink and had already started on her second for why she didn't notice that Mercy had stolen her phone from her back pocket. It wasn't until she looked up from where Theo was re-racking the balls that she noticed Mercy perched on a barstool with her and Rogue's phones in her hands.
"Sugah what are you doing?"
"I'm texting Kitty," Mercy answered, not looking up from her phone.
"Ya what?" Rogue sputtered, choking on her daiquiri.
"Ouias, she's fun to talk to. We're discussing what type of clothes you need to buy if you're going to keep visiting the family down here," Mercy looked up and shot Rogue an innocent look. Rogue's eyes bugged.
"The hell you are!" Rogue exclaimed, lunging for Mercy and her phone as it dinged with new text messages. Mercy laughed and leapt from her barstool, dancing away from Rogue's grasp.
"Mais, she said something about a leather miniskirt you used to wear. Remy, you know anything about that?" Mercy called over her shoulder to her brother-in-law while still dodging away just out of reach of Rogue.
"Bien sûr, I remember it," Remy smirked lazily from his seat on a barstool, his eyes glowing faintly.
Rogue's face flushed red, and she quickly snatched her phone out of Mercy's hands switching it to silent. The last thing she needed was for Kitty and Mercy teaming up. Her closet would never be the same.
Rogue glanced up as another group of people walked in and felt the blood drain from her face. Julien had just entered with a group of men taking up one of the corner booths and ordering drinks. Shit.
"Assassins are here." Rogue heard Henri say in a low voice spotting the group at the same time Rogue did. The rest of the group looked up.
"Well, there goes the neighborhood," muttered Emil.
"Just ignore them. Dey not causing any trouble yet, and we ain't going to be the ones that pick a fight," Henri ordered, turning back to the pool table to line up his shot. The rest of the group slowly fell back into conversation, trying to ignore the Assassins across the room.
About an hour later, with both Guilds sticking to their respective sides of the bar, Rogue felt Mercy grab her shoulder, "Come to the bathroom with me?"
Finishing washing her hands and fixing her hair in the mirror, the two women headed back out to the bar.
Heads up, Kid, barked Logan. Julien was leaning against the wall leading from the bathrooms to the bar area.
"Well, if it isn't LeBeau's putain," Julien noted, kicking off the wall, walking towards them. Rogue wasn't familiar with the word, but between Mercy's stiffening and Remy's psyche getting antsy, she could guess it wasn't a compliment. Rogue stepped forward and slightly in front of Mercy. If Julien was angling for a fight, she might be able to block long enough for Mercy to slip past and get help.
"I'm surprised to see you come back to Louisiana, fille. I'd have thought you be smart enough to stay out of this city," Julien stopped a few feet away from her just out of striking distance. She could see Mercy desperately trying to get the group's attention from the corner of her eye.
On your guard, directed Logan.
He's armed with at least two knives, Cher, and maybe a gun, Remy informed her.
Rogue called on Ororo's calm to marshal Logan and Remy's psyches. Henri said not to start a fight, and she sure as hell wasn't going to swing first.
Bad move, Kid. Always go for the element of surprise. Logan advised.
Rogue ignored Logan and tried to mimic Ororo's bearing, pulling herself to her full height holding her head high, and smoothing away the emotion from her face. "Not that it's any of your business, Julien. But I'm not sleeping with anyone." Rogue replied smoothly.
Julien shot her a nasty grin and leaned in close, "Is that cause you can't, Petite, or is LeBeau just not brave enough?"
Yeah, no. Screw the high road, Rogue thought, glowering at the man in front of her as Remy and Logan's psyches screamed in defense of her. Mercy must have finally gotten Remy's attention because he was on his feet and heading their way, the others close behind.
"Maybe you need more of a man to handle you," Julien continued leaning forward, dragging his eyes over her.
Rogue scoffed at that. Fisting a hand on her hip, she shot the man in front of her the nastiest grin she could and scoffed, "Oh yeah? Like who? You?"
Smirking, Julien took another step forward fully into her personal space, "Well, Assassins are trained to handle beautiful and deadly things from birth, Petite."
Blood boiling, Rogue resisted the urge to step back and glared at him full force biting off each word, "In your dreams, Julien, and not even then."
"Back off, Julien," Remy hissed, finally reaching them. Irritation flashed across Julien's face at Remy's arrival, but he turned to face the card-charging mutant.
Sneering, Julien asked, "What's wrong, LeBeau? Afraid you might lose your chienne."
Rogue stiffened. She did know what that meant. At this point, Henri and the others came to stand behind Mercy and Rogue as the Assassins stood up from their corner booth.
Stepping between Julien and Remy, she glared at the Assassin in front of her, "Julien, you best keep your tongue behind your teeth because your crazy is showing." Turning to address the man behind her, "Remy, my head is killing me. We're going. Now." Grabbing ahold of the Cajun's wrist, she pulled him towards the entrance. Mercifully Julien kept his mouth shut.
A few minutes later, Rogue was reclining in the front seat of Remy's car, massaging her head as the car sped through the city. The silence was soothing to her ears even as her right eye and the back of her neck pounded.
"You okay, Cher?" Remy asked quietly.
"Yeah, it's fine. The psyches are killing me. Logan and your psyches really don't like him," she murmured.
"Did he hurt ya?"
"No Sugah. He was just being an ass." She replied, wincing when Julien's psyche decided to protest her choice of words. Remy took one hand off the steering wheel and reached over, gently massaging the back of Rogue's neck through her hair. The two remained silent the rest of the way home.
Rogue woke to the sound of heavy pounding on her door. Confused, she managed to flip on the light and kick herself free of the covers before stumbling to the door and pulling it open. Remy was standing on the other side.
"Get dressed. We need to come to Jean-Luc's office." He told her before heading back down the hallway.
Rogue nodded and glanced at the clock. 4:56, something was up. Wheeling around, she reached for Remy's red and black flannel and slipped into it before grabbing her gloves. Stepping back into the hallway, Remy was waiting for her.
"What's up?"
"Not sure. Henri woke me up a few minutes ago and said we were needed."
Entering Jean-Luc's office, she saw Henri and Mercy were already there, along with Theo and Belize, all in sweats or nightclothes. Settling on the couch between Remy and Mercy, she watched Jean-Luc, who was looking out one of the French doors talking on his phone in rapid French.
"Je comprends, Alden. Merci pour votre appel." Rogue watched silently as Jean-Luc hung up the phone before facing the room with a grim look.
"I just spoke with Alden. Another Assassin girl has gone missing, and Julien is missing as well."
XOXOXOXOX
Next Chapter: Things get heated in the Thieves Guilds and Emeric stirs the pot.
Fun Facts:
Rogue's description of sitting in a fine restaurant staring at a strip club sign for "Barely Legal Hustlers" is a true story from my first trip to New Orleans right after high school.
Rogue's skill as a pool player is canon. All the animated versions and the comics show her playing and being pretty good at it.