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Chapters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
 
 
 

Street Livin’ - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Courtney
Last updated: 01/02/2007 02:01:11 AM

Chapter 15

The sun was reaching its highest peak when Rogue and Remy made it back inside. Their stomachs were growling for lunch as they made their way to the kitchen. When they walked in, they were not alone. Jean was in there with the professor, her munching from a large plate of fruit from that morning, while Xavier sipped on cooling tea. Their conversation stopped abruptly as the two kids walked in. They stared at each other for half a minute before the professor waved them in.

“Good afternoon, you two,” he greeted, rolling his chair aside so they could get seats at the table. They each said a simple hello and slid in a chair. “How did your explorations fare?”

Rogue looked at Remy for a split second and then Xavier. “Good,” she said.

Remy’s head felt like it were to burst at any second. He worried over whether Xavier knew of him making it to the sub-level or if Hank and Scott made up something to save his ass.

“Now, Remy, I know about your little discovery, so please stop fretting over it,” the professor said, rubbing his temple.

Remy had taken his sunglasses off when they entered the house, so he just stared at Xavier with harsh red eyes. “I didn’ ask y’ t’ go int’ m’head.”

Despite Remy’s rudeness, Xavier stayed calm. He’d ‘fathered’ many children, more of them similar to Remy than he’d be willing to admit. “You were projecting your thoughts so strongly that I couldn’t help but hear them.”

Remy snorted and thought to himself – quietly – that he needed his own castle like Rogue. Projecting thoughts so these spooks could hear him accidentally was not going to make this the picture perfect home that it was all cracked up to be.

Rogue watched silently, her own thoughts running discreetly through her mind. What if Ah were ta get Jean’s help with mah powers – the others did say Ah could trust her – an’ further build up mah shields. Then Ah can teach Remy ta make his own. She glanced warily in his direction. Ah know he’s not too crazy about the psychos here, so that’s what Ah’ll do! She inwardly smiled happily to herself. “Hey, Jean. Can Ah talk to ya later about mah head? Emma said Ah had some mental shields up or somethin’ an’ that they were pretty strong. Is there anyway ta get them even better?”

Jean smiled warmly. “Sweetie, you can make them concrete if you wanted to.” Rogue’s eyes lit up with pure delight at that thought.

“Can you teach me?”

“Of course.” The thought of not being able to penetrate her mind afterwards never surfaced in Jean’s head. She was just eager that Rogue had actually asked for help. Jean motioned over her shoulder to the refrigerator. “If you two are hungry, help yourselves.” She opened the door with her telekinesis so the younger two could see what awaited them inside.

“Kurt wasn’ kiddin’…” Remy’s eyes glazed over as he slid out of his seat and ran to the fridge. “Dis t’ing be bottomless.”

“Ah don’t know what Ah want…” She finally found some cold pasta that just needed to be heated up with a little water. Jean helped her get everything together. Remy decided on some mashed potatoes and spicy buffalo wings that were supposedly Logan’s and Logan’s alone by Jean’s warning. Remy gave her a suave ‘whatever’ and she heated them up for him.

After their food was heated up and eaten, Jean suggested that she take Rogue alone to the den. Remy wanted to go along, but Rogue whispered to him that it was for him that she was doing this and it was a surprise. He was a bit skeptical, but she gave him a quick hug and told her to trust him. She smiled sweetly and followed Jean.

Remy turned to see Xavier smiling gently at him. “You have a strong friendship with her, correct?” Remy nodded. “She’s a lucky girl then. A girl like that needs stability.”

Remy couldn’t help but think that Xavier knew about her past. Then it clicked; of course he did, what else could him and Jean have been talking about when they walked in? That explained why their conversation had halted so sharply. He decided not to think like that. They couldn’t be horrible people that gossip about little kids while drinking tea and such, just because they were spooks. “I’m luckier f’r findin’ her,” he said quietly. He was about to get up, but Xavier stopped him.

“I have a question to ask you, Remy.”

“Go f’r it, homme.”

“I was told by Kitty that Rogue’s birthday is in a few short days.” Remy could only nod. “Would you be interested in planning a bit of a party for her? It could double as a full welcome party for the two of you, if you’d like.”

Remy thought about it for a minute. It would be nice f’r us t’ get t’ know ev’ryone… but how would Rogue react t’ a party in her name? I’m not sure if she would appreciate ev’ryone lookin’ at her. But maybe t’ings will shape out in de next few days. “Could I have a li’l more time t’ t’ink ‘bout it?”

“Of course. It will by no means be a surprise party if you don’t think she’ll be able to handle it.”

“Dat might be bett’r f’r her if it wasn’t it.”

“So you will help out?”

He shrugged. “Where I c’n. I mean, I don’ know dat much more ‘bout dis place dan her.” Xavier cleared his throat. “Except f’r downstairs, right.”

Xavier smiled. “Great. Oh, Scott volunteered to take you shopping for some clothes and extra things you may need.”

“Rogue’s gon’ stay here?”

“Jean I think is going along with Kitty, Jubilee, and Ororo for some shopping. She’ll most likely be accompanying them.”

“Oh,” Remy’s face fell sober. Spending the day with Scott was not what he called fun. “What time does Kurt get out of class?”

“Not for another hour and a half. Why?”

“C’n he come wit’ us t’ de store? I’d feel bett’r if I had someone closer t’ my age wit’ me – not dat I have anyt’in’ ‘gainst Scott.” Like hell I don’.

“Hmm… Scott is a teacher so he’ll be finished the same time Kurt, so I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

Remy nodded. “Hey, if it’s cool, c’n I go watch TV or somet’in’ now?”

“Will you keep out of trouble?” Xavier asked with a glint in his eye.

“Definitely.”

“I’ll trust you on this one, Remy,” he smiled. “Go ahead. You know where the T.V. room is, right?”

“Umm…” If he knows ‘bout me by de Danger Room, den he might know ‘bout me an’ Rogue goin’ downstairs after ten… not dat it matters. He doesn’ seem mad ‘bout anyt’in’. To be on the safe side, he answered, “Me an’ Rogue walked by it dis mornin’ sometime. I t’ink I c’n find it again.”

“Of course. I’ll talk to you later, Remy.”

Remy gave a little wave and hopped down from his seat, quickly exiting the kitchen. Man, that guy gave him the creeps.

Remy sat in the T.V. for over an hour, finding nothing that could hold his interest too long. He hadn’t watched T.V. in forever, so it wasn’t like he had a favorite show or anything. After flipping between Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon for a bit, he decided to check on what movies the mansion had. He jumped up from the couch and walked over to the cabinet, which was filled ceiling to floor with movies, some VHS, other DVD. He picked out a Disney movie (VHS), not really having a preference on what to watch. He took the cassette out of the box and walked over to the VCR. Remy suddenly felt like a caveman. He looked from the tape to the machine and his mind went blank on how he could possibly operate it. After a minute of examining both, he remembered that the two reels were supposed to be face down and the label out. So far, so good.

He tried pushing it in, but it wouldn’t budge. Figuring that the machine was just stubborn, he pushed harder. Nothing. He pushed the little door up and saw that someone had left a tape in there. Sighing, he looked to the buttons to operate it. None of them had words next to them, just symbols; it was all supposed to be implied. Terrific. As if I didn’ feel ignorant before… He growled to himself. It wasn’t as if he could go into the electronic stores when he lived on his own. That would’ve been too suspicious for a kid like him. He had exposure to TV’s and the like in the orphanage, but such useless knowledge was forgotten when he lived on the streets. The most experience he’d gotten was sitting in laundromats and bus terminals to pass time. He would watch the news if he could, and would steal newspaper a couple times a week, to keep his reading skills up.

Back to the VCR, he’d begun hitting random buttons. Of course, since it was Xavier’s place and his VCR, it had to elite and expensive, meaning there were ten or so extra buttons on it. Each button either did nothing or something Remy didn’t want it to do. The menu came up on the TV, he changed the channel several times, he rewound the tape in there, played the tape, fast-forwarded while still playing, stopped it, hit the power button to turn it off, then turned it back on, and then finally hit the button right below that. Success! The wretched tape came out.

He yanked it out of the machine and glared at it. His eyes read over the label. Sense and Sensibility. It sounded like some cheesy flick that Emma had probably watched. Her or Jean, anyway. He tossed it behind him, feeling his hands slightly tingle. He was not going to let this thing get to him. That, and he would probably get hell from Emma if he blew the tape up. Remembering that he hadn’t brought his cards with him, he drew his fist into a ball and slowly centered the pain somewhere else, in the back of his mind. It faded away with a little groan from him. Remy’s eyes went wide as he realized he had technically controlled it on his own.

He glanced down to his hands and just stared. They weren’t glowing at all. Remy smirked to himself. Yeah… I’ve got dis covered on m’own. Wait’ll I tell Rogue. Chuckling to himself, he picked the tape he wanted to watch off the table and popped it in the VCR.

Still grinning, he plopped down on the couch, happy to see that the tape started automatically. The TV screen was fuzzy though, drowning down his sudden good mood. “Jus’ great,” he groaned.

“What’s great?” A voice asked. Remy looked to the entrance of the room. Ororo stood there, a bowl of salad in her delicate hands.

“I’m havin’ a bit of trouble wit’ de stupid VCR.”

She smiled as she sat down next to him. She lifted the remote off the table. “You have to put it on the ‘TV/Video’ option for it to not be fuzzy.” She clicked the button for him.”

“Merci. Lunchtime f’r de students?”

“No, classes are over for the day. A couple of them may filter in here to play some games or something like that.”

“Oh.”

“So what’s the afternoon movie?”

Remy furrowed his eyebrows in thought, realizing he never actually looked at the box. He had discarded it on the floor. Ororo picked it up with a slight wave of her hand and a breeze. Remy snatched it from the air. He looked at it quizzically. “De Lion King?” He had picked this one?

“I’ll remember this, Remy,” Ororo giggled.

“It was random!” The opening credits had begun to play and Ororo’s eyes drifted to the screen.

“This makes me nostalgic for home,” she sighed wistfully.

Remy eyed her cautiously, remembering was Jubilee had said about empathy at breakfast. He saw Ororo’s eyes twinkle, felt her shaky sigh, the burning of oncoming tears. “Stormy… does dis have t’ do wit’ dat t’ing y’ wouldn’ tell me ‘bout yesterday?” He edged closer, slowly.

She looked at him. “Always blunt, hmm?” It came out harsher than she intended. He shrugged under her heavy gaze. “You were going to find out eventually from someone else, most likely. So you might as well hear it from me.” She sighed again, telling herself not to lose control. Remy couldn’t help but notice that the sun outside had ducked behind a few clouds.

“When I was thirteen, my powers manifested. It was night actually. I was having a great time with a few of my friends and realized I was running terribly late when I’d gotten home. I was sent to my room because I had been out too late and you must know how it is, you’re hitting the teens and you think you rule the world?” Remy nodded. “Well, I was raging mad when my mother sent me to bed. I couldn’t help but feel horrible anger towards my parents for not letting me live my life… it seems so silly now.

“The wind had started picking up outside and considering it didn’t rain that often in my village, I was curious. I looked through the window and you know how you can see your reflection if you look just right?” She waited for Remy to nod again. “I didn’t have to look hard to see that my eyes had changed to solid white, as did my hair. It was flying all around me. I, of course, freaked out, which probably didn’t help matters at all. Rain started coming down in small, stinging drops and the wind picked up incredibly. Our house wasn’t built for that strong of winds. My mother and father came into my room to get me out of the house… and then they saw me… and the look of horror on their faces, it just made me angrier. I expected them to help me, because I was so frightened… not stare at me like some circus act.” Her voice began to taper off, hoping Remy would get an idea of what would happen next. He just stared at her, taking everything in.

“Go on, chere.”

Her lip trembled much like the day before, but she took a deep, shaky breath and continued. “The house came down in a matter of seconds. It came down before I could realize it. I went down underneath of it, as did my parents. A few hours must have passed by the time I woke up. I remembered what I had done and I began looking through the refuge for my parents. But I never found them.”

“Dey abandoned y’?”

She looked at him with icy eyes. “You just had to say it, huh? You just had to ask your little questions and act all innocent while I tell you everything!” Remy saw the rain beginning to fall down in sheets out of the corner of his eye. She stood up, her eyes quickly milking over to solid white.

He grabbed a hold of her wrist. “Ororo, I told y’ I got abandoned too, right?”

She blinked and looked down at him. “You did.”

“Den I know how y’ feel. But at least y’ had dose first years wit’ ‘em, eh? I had ‘bout a week with m’maman an’ dat was it.”

She sunk into the couch again. “But I never got to say sorry for being out late… or sorry for destroying the house. And I’m so angry that they never gave me the chance to make it up to them.” She held her fists in tight balls, trying to calm the winds outside.

“Stormy, y’ got y’ second chance here.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Sorry,” he smirked.

“One of these days I’m going to hate that smirk.”

“But right now y’ can’ help but smile wit’ me.”

Her lips twitched as she fought back her own grin. “You’re not playing fair.”

He shrugged. “Do y’ feel bett’r now?”

She nodded weakly. “Let’s watch the movie.”

“Alright.” They settled back into the couch, both pairs of eyes glued to the TV. Ororo quietly munched on her salad that had been forgotten until that moment.

Right outside of the room, Rogue stood listening to them. She had gotten out of her session with Jean minutes before and was ready to teach Remy how to make his own mental shields, but then she heard Ororo with him. Rogue didn’t care what she was saying to him, just that she was with him. Ah will not lose him. She thought coldly. She liked Ororo, she really did, but not when she was with Remy. Rogue thought about how harshly she was thinking. He should make new friends, raht? Who am Ah ta tell him who he can’t talk ta. Besides, he’s older than me, Ah can’t order him around. She tried to tell herself that there wasn’t a single thing to worry about and she was just overacting, but she still had the sinking pit of fear in her stomach that he would forget about her and leave her all alone, just like she felt in the alley before she met him. Those were the longest four days of her life.

“Rogue?” Kurt walked up behind her. “What are you doing out here?”

She turned and looked at her brother. “Ah just got here an’ was thinkin’ ‘bout some stuff. Ororo an’ Remy seemed ta be talkin’ ‘bout somethin’ deep an’ Ah didn’t wanna interrupt them. That would’ve been rude, raht?”

He smiled. “It would’ve. You’re still the sweet little girl I remember.”

She grinned proudly. “Ah’ll always be that, Elf. C’mon.” She took his free hand in hers, as he was holding a plate with a grilled cheese sandwich on it. She led him into the rec room. “Hey, y’all,” she chirped. “Ooh! The Lion King!” She found a tiny space between Remy and Ororo to sit down. Kurt chose to sit on the armchair next to the couch. “This movie is so fun.”

“How did de t’ing wit’ Jean go?” Remy asked as he slid over to give Rogue a bit more room.

“Great. Ah can’t wait to tell ya what we talked about.”

He grinned at her. “Dat’s m’girl.”

“’Ro, you okay? I thought I saw the weather go a little haywire outside,” Kurt asked, concerned.

She smiled faintly in his direction. “I’m fine. I just had a momentary lapse, that’s all.” He crooked his eyebrow quizzically. “Really, nothing to worry about.”

“Alright then. At least all the classes were inside by then. Imagine the surprise they would’ve had,” he laughed. Ororo giggled briefly with him. By that time, more students had begun to come into the room, some choosing to watch the movie with them, others going to the other side of the room to play on the computers or arcade games.

Rogue sat as close to Remy as humanely possible without literally being on top of him. She threw glances towards Ororo, but she was intently watching the movie and didn’t notice. Or is pretendin’ not ta notice…

Remy did notice though. He caught the last one Rogue had given the young wind rider and paid attention to Rogue completely. The way she was leaning on him, how she had just plopped right in between the two of them, even though there was plenty of space on either side of them. The girl was envious of the friendship he’d made with Ororo. He fought back a smile. He expected himself to be slightly annoyed with Rogue tagging onto him as she was, but he found it flattering. He decided that she needed another reminder of how much she really meant to him.

“C’mere, p’tite.” He slid her onto his lap, where she curled up comfortably. “Dis is what y’ wanted, hein?”

She smirked. “It is.”

He brought his lips as close to her ear as he dared. “I know how y’ feel ‘bout Ororo.”

“Ya do?”

He nodded, bringing a few strands of his hair to tickle her cheek. She giggled. “No matter what, p’tite. I’ll never, ever leave y’. But c’n y’ allow me t’ make a couple friends?”

She turned to face him, a small frown donning her lips. “Ah know,” she whispered. “Ah was just afraid you’d fohget all ‘bout me if ya made too many friends.”

“I nev’r will. Y’r de best t’ing in my life, Rogue. De best friend I’ve always wanted.”

Her smile grew wide. Not thinking of any words to say, she took his arm in the two of hers and curled it around her torso. She turned and started watching the movie again. Remy held the arm there all the way through, even when she did little dances to the songs.

 

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