I feel bad about being so quiet and then returning with a short, entirely plotless, fluff fic. I have been busy preparing for Rogue/Gambit week, and set myself the challenge of writing something for each day. But I read X-Men #35, and I headcanoned context for the brief Romy panels and then I wanted to share it, and this vignette is the result!
Now back to wrapping up editing on my eight (!!) Romy fics before getting back to 2 Queens!
A Second
"Think of it as a second honeymoon, chere," Remy had said with a wry twist to his mouth when they'd arrived in Mexico, filthy and exhausted from their long journey by boat and truck. She had to admit that it sounded better than the truth: they were hiding out like the outlaws they had become.
Orchis had been defeated, Krakoa had ascended to a higher reality, and their names had been moved up every government's secret kill list. The X-Men had shown they could destabilize the world order; in the process, they'd made themselves the target of every superpower with a hit squad who liked the status quo.
Rogue had talked with Remy about leaving with Krakoa, living out the rest of their lives in mutant paradise. It had been a tempting dream, but she'd thought of all the mutants left behind, the mutants not yet born. Someone needed to fight for them. Besides, some stubborn part of her had thought, the United States was her home. She'd been born in Mississippi, married in New York. She'd be damned if she'd let bigots drive her out of it.
Remy hadn't tried to convince her. Krakoa had never sat right with him, had never been home in the same way that it was for some other mutants. The island has never come close to New Orleans in his heart, and he had always been a thief as much as an X-Man. She knew he would have gone with her if she'd asked, just as she would have stayed if he had.
In the end, they had been relieved to discover they'd been of the same mind. What neither of them had been able to decide was what came next. Did they join Scott in Alaska? Did she persuade Cap to let them join the Avengers, wrap themselves in the protection that the Circle A offered? Did they retire to civilian life to become Mr and Mrs LeBeau, like Kitty was doing? She could dye her hair, Remy could wear contacts, they would pass. So, they had agreed they would take a beat, go to ground and figure out their next move, which was why they were in Mexico.
Now, Rogue paced the floor, while Remy slept, sprawled naked on the bed, exhausted from the job that had bought them a week in this safehouse. They weren't king and queen of thieves any more, and Remy had burnt through most of his markers getting them to the country without drawing the wrong attention. At least it had been the kind of work he liked best: stealing Mayan gold from a wealthy, white collector who'd acquired it through the black market. He'd have done it for free, once.
She smiled as she looked at him, tanned skin dappled by the moonlight that came through the bougainvillea. Three years of marriage hadn't made him - their relationship - any less amazing to her. It still felt miraculous to her that the handsomest devil she knew, the snake charmer extraordinaire, had not only chosen her, but fought for her again and again. She didn't know what she was going to do once this pause was over, but she knew it would be with him.
Tomorrow, she thought, they'd make the second honeymoon more than a joke. They'd wake up late, make love, drink beer in the sunshine, go dancing late at night when the darkness gave them cover. Maybe that was enough for the moment. Maybe that was enough forever.
She climbed back into bed and wrapped her arms around him. He stirred enough to slide an arm around her waist and pull her tighter into him.
Sleepily, "Chere, you good?"
"Shh, sugar," she kissed the top of his head, "I'm with you and we're on our second honeymoon. I'm perfect."