Epilogue

Rogue sat quietly across from Gambit at their table in the fine restaurant. They were both wearing good casual clothes and had arrived on Gambit's new motorcycle. Gambit was particularly fond of the leather pants Rogue wore.

It had been a week since Gambit had joined the X-Men. To his disappointment, neither of the rooms next to Rogue's were free, so he had to make do with a room down the hall instead. Logan had Gambit start training with the team in the Danger Room almost from day one. At the end of his first session, a particularly gruelling exercise, Bobby said to Gambit: "Welcome to the X-Men. We hope you survive the experience."

The assassin community had taken a hit from hunting down Gambit. Seven had been hospitalised due to injuries (three prior to Gambit reaching his safehouse, and four during his departure from Canada). Two had been killed, (one prior to Gambit reaching his safehouse, and one during his departure). Twenty-six had been put into comas of varying lengths (two in Canada, Bullseye and Elektra in Missouri, and the twenty-two in Oklahoma). All of these had led to subsequent arrests. Some had already escaped custody, and more would either escape or evade justice with a good lawyer.

Nevertheless, it was generally accepted that the bounty originally set by Sybil Zane had been far too low. It had been therefore decided by the Hell House (and other assassin houses) that the minimum bounty for Gambit's head, and Rogue's by extension, would be at least ten times that. Gambit was quite smug when he found out.

So was Deadpool, as he figured he would accept that bounty and then get Gambit to pay him three times that not to kill him. It was the perfect get rich quick scheme! Now, if only someone would put another bounty on Gambit's head...

Rogue set her finished plate aside and picked up her glass while Gambit perused the dessert menu. True to his word, Gambit was taking her out on her first proper date, but she was finding she wasn't quite enjoying it as much as she thought. It wasn't that Gambit wasn't being romantic or anything. He'd brought her flowers and been generally charming. The restaurant was quite nice. Conversation had been pleasant. She really had no cause to complain whatsoever.

Yet, she was bored. She had been so excited about having her first date and now that she was having it, she was wondering what all the fuss was about. Was it her? Had she built up dating to be such a wonderful thing that she'd lost sight of the reality in favour of the fantasy?

"Anything interesting?" Rogue asked him as he set the menu aside.

He gave a shrug. "No, not really. But I'm feeling a little full at the moment anyway."

"Yeah, so am I. Dinner was really good," Rogue replied agreeably.

"Yeah."

They looked at each other, Gambit studying her thoughtfully.

"So this is kind of weird," he said. "You and me, out having a decent meal, just the two of us, and not getting jumped by assassins."

Rogue gave a laugh. "Yeah, I had a feeling something was missing."

Gambit grinned. "You as bored as I am?"

The look Rogue gave him was one of relief. "Yes!"

"Wanna go start a fight?" he asked mischievously.

"Absolutely."

End.

It feels like it's been years since I last finished a story... oh wait, it has.

Thanks everyone for all your reviews. And I hope that everyone (regardless of whether you reviewed or not) enjoyed the story.

I hope that it's clear that the thing Gambit was meant to do was provide the information on the drives. In my head, 20 years in the future Xavier came across Gambit's ski cabin while in the company of Deadpool (who knew where the cabin was, for obvious reasons). By that point the ski cabin was rather run down and falling apart, (and there was a skeleton in front of the fireplace), and they found the place where Gambit had hidden the data and his fake IDs and stuff. Xavier realised that if the X-Men had gotten the information earlier they could have prevented a few things. It's win-win really, save the world and save Gambit at the same time. Hurrah! ;)

I did considered going into all this in-story but that would have meant figuring out things like what specific threat they were trying to save the world from and that was all too much effort, hehe. I just wanted to write a story where Rogue and Gambit hooked up quickly and kicked butt together.