Disclaimer: Don't own the X-Men :-(

Chapter 11: Unordinary.

Remy grabbed tightly the steering wheel; he had finally said it. At the beginning, he knew he liked her a lot; then, he realized he cared about her more than he had cared about anyone else before. And after that, he had found out that he loved her. Some time ago, he woke up in the morning and looked at himself in the mirror, thinking: "Love? Ya love her?... Non; ya've never really loved anyone, why her? She's cute, but no big deal". But then, a while later, he met her by the stairs, in the kitchen, in the danger room, and he realized that the guy in the mirror was wrong: he did love her. And now, driving in the highway, with Rogue staring at him like he lost his mind, he was content to have finally said it, to have touched her hand last night, but at the same time, he was worried. Would she believe him or would she think he was just bluffing?

"Ya heard me" he managed to say.

"Yah… yah can't just say that".

"Well, I just did, chere! Sue me, now!"

"But Remy, oh mah Gawd, this is insane! Why are yah doin' this?" she shot back, a hand pressed against her forehead. She felt more startled than sceptical; more confused than upset.

"Why am I doin' what? Tellin' ya how I feel?"

"No, no: messin' up with mah mind, an'… yeah, Ah know what yah're doin': yah're tryin' t' take advantage of me, not havin' the wall anymore!"

"The wall?!"

"Yeah, mah god damn power! Yah're just tryin' to drive me crazy!"

"Yer power's never got anythin' t' do with dis; I've always, always loved ya, almost since day one…" She huffed at this comment, so he felt the need to explain himself: "…Even though ya're probably de most stubborn, bad-tempered fille I've ever met".

"An' yah gotta be the most annoyin' Swamp Rat in history, an'… we're talkin' pure nonsense now. See, Rem, love's somethin' big, huge! It's…" she stopped at this point, because she couldn't really find the right words to say: what was love?: "Ah guess Ah don't really know what it is".

"Well, let me show ya, chere… I had never been in love before, so I'm not much of an expert either, I swear! It's true dere's been a lot of girls, but definitely no love. So, we could figure it out together; how 'bout dat?" he smirked, but not cockily like he used to do it: this time, it was a hopeful smile.

"Shut up."

"What? What did I say now?!"

"Just… stop buggin' mah ears for a while, an' let me think, all right?"

"Dieu!"

Rogue had to bit her lower lip not to laugh: she had never seen Remy being so distressed, and she had known him for quite a while by now.

Trying to clear things up inside her head, she grabbed a bottle of water they had bought at the restaurant, and drank a little. Her mind was spinning around, intending to measure the meaning of this whole situation. Then, she decided to put everything aside: the things Remy had done wrong in the past, the things she thought he could do wrong in the future; her own worry, her past sorrow, her power's current situation, her self-sufficiency and pride; and like this, she focused in only one question: what on Earth did she really feel for him? It was true that she had some great conversations with him: she was never bored when they were together; even when they were arguing, she wouldn't have preferred to be with anyone else. When she realized of this, she had to drink a big sip of water, that made her cough a little when she swallowed it. This wasn't a film or a tale, where the girl turns the bad guy into a good one; this was real life. Her life… that had been so lonely and gloomy. Didn't she deserve to go and try to be happy? Was Remy the one to do that? She finished the whole bottle in one gulp…

Then, she turned on the radio; they were playing Simple Plan's song "Every time"; even though she didn't turn to see him, she could feel his eyes on her from time to time, and she even heard a dissimulated chuckle. One day ago, she would have probably yelled him to leave her alone; why not now? How could a single day have changed her so much?

The road kept going and going on the other side of the window; in three or four hours that went by faster than they realized, they only exchanged a few meaningless words, like:

"What time do yah think we're gettin' home?"

"Around 4 or 5 pm, mebbe"; or:

"Ya really gotta tell the Prof 'bout the doctor's thing".

"Yeah… Ah will"; and also:

"Why don't yah let me drive for a while?"

"Don't think so, chere; wanna get home in a single piece, if ya don't mind", and some others similar to these. Rogue fell asleep for a while, until she heard Remy's voice again:

"Ya hungry?"

"Mmm… kinda". Next, he led the car towards a gas station.

Once they parked, Rogue jumped off the pick up truck and went to the bathroom; it was great to finally wash her face and her bare hands. She looked at herself in the mirror for a few moments, and smiled: this was her life, real life…

When she got back inside the car, she found Remy had bought two hot dogs. He was eating his and hers was on her seat, so she took it, and sat down.

"Ah'd say thanks, but Ah should probably thank Cyclops instead, shouldn't Ah?"

"Ya're right 'bout dat, chere" he agreed, and proceeded to bite the hot dog, but it was so huge that you wouldn't have been able to bite it without ending up with ketchup and mustard even in your nose.

"Don't yah have any napkins?" Rogue asked, staring at her gigantic hot dog, and then back at Remy. He shook his head, and then Rogue couldn't help but to chuckle: he had ketchup on his right cheek.

"Guess we're gonna need dem" he admitted once he had swallowed.

"Mmm, nah, Ah don't think so" she said, trying not to think, not to give herself excuses or reasons not to do what she started to do: approaching her face to Remy's. He froze, and when Rogue placed her lips in his cheek, where the ketchup was, he recognized to himself that in his whole life as a player and thief, he had never ever felt so twitchy inside.

It was spicy, the ketchup, and after around ten seconds, Rogue finally separated her lips from his face. She didn't know whether to laugh or to regret this for the rest of her life. But, oh no! How could she regret it? How could she regret feeling so… good.

"Oops!" Remy suddenly whispered, removing the hot dog from his chin, now spotted with mustard. Raising a brow, she approached again, and kissed his stubbly mustarded jaw.

"It's good" she said, separating her face again, and biting her own hot dog.

"What… was dat for?" he uttered.

"No… napkins" she shrugged, not looking at his eyes. He stayed in silence for a couple of seconds.

"Chere! Look at that, ya've got some... right here..." and saying this, he advanced towards her cheek, and did the same thing she had done. She couldn't help but to smile widely; she had a feeling of dizziness, of foolishness, of… deliciousness, inside. He smelled so good…

"More ketchup, here; ya really be a mess" he continued, kissing now her chin. It was his lips, touching her formerly poisonous skin; but that seemed so far away now. All she could think of was her heart, going a million miles per hour. He finally met her eyes, and muttered:

"An'… here"; now, they were face to face, so close, even more than the night before. He put the hot dog somewhere, and placed his hands around her neck, feeling her pulse with his fingers. She would have ran away the day before; she would have slapped him, or kicked him, or call him awful names. But she would have been deceiving herself.

"Ah must have lost mah head, this most have been the… craziest day of mah…" she muttered, but he didn't let her continue as he softly pressed his lips against hers, her white bangs falling over their faces.

END.

I needed some fluff to finish this! Wow it took me a whole month to write this story! My first inspiration for this fic was Simple Plan's song "Every time", so I had to mention it in this final chapter; I love that song, so if you haven't heard it, lend it to your ears! Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed; I really hope this final went good.