AN:

When I finished writing The Irony I felt like I'd written the first chapter of a longer story. I was wrong. It turned out to be the first story of a series, and this The Great Hobby Search, is the second story. I have lots of plans for this series, and I am really excited about getting to write them :D

Updates will be weekly.

General House-keeping:

Where have you been the last couple of years?: Writing Hell. This is the first story I've completed since The Air That I Breathe. It's been extremely frustrating.

Another series? What about Thieves Guild and Don't Ruin The Upholstery?: I'm going to continue Thieves Guild. I've got a bunch of subplots for the next story, but I still haven't figured out the main plotline yet. I suspect I may have shot myself in the foot with the epilogue I gave Hand Over My Body, hahaha.

However, I've decided not to continue Don't Ruin The Upholstery. I've been away from it for too long, and my writing style has changed (hopefully it's improved, heh). I think the last story, I Was Unconscious Most of the Time, is a natural ending anyway. Some of the short-term plans I had for this have gotten used in other stories. Heck, one of the things I had planned for the next story is going to get used in Thieves Guild instead, just 'cause it works better there *gleeful grin*. That said, I did have a long-term plotline planned that I'm reluctant to abandon so I MIGHT write a story based so many years in the future. Maybe. Perhaps. It's something I'm considering, but no promises.

And now the story. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Kurt

"You need to find a hobby. Something that will enable you to enter a place of calm. Call it 'the zone' call it 'zen', call it whatever you wish and learn from it. It will teach you how to build a core of calm within yourself. In this core, you can still feel emotions without being ruled by them and not suppressing them."

Storm's words ran through Gambit's mind as he glared at the sewing machine. He tried to contain his frustration and not blow it up like he was tempted to. The idea of deliberately letting go and letting the machine explode into pieces was painting an awfully pretty picture in his mind.

He would be contrite after: "I'm so sorry, Kurt. I was having trouble, and well, you know what happens when I feel intense emotion."

Gambit closed his eyes and forced himself to take a deep breath. He could feel the tingle of kinetic energy licking at his hands from his gloves, and the cursed fabric he held between his fingers. It was to be a coat for his pirate costume.

"Cosplay is fun," Kurt said. "It's even better when you make your own costumes. Trust me."

The charges began to grow and increase in response to the memory. He mentally winced and held on as tight as he could to the charges, determined to at least prevent them from exploding until he was calm enough to remove them.

He felt movement behind him, and sensed someone moving towards him. Probably Kurt, since it was unlikely any of the other students in the domestic science class would intervene.

"Ah, run into problems, I see," Kurt said, with the voice of someone who is nervous, but trying to sound light and carefree. "Why don't you have a break? You've been at it for—"

"A grand total of twenty minutes," Gambit cut in cynically.

"Which means you've overdue. You should always at least stand up and stretch after ten minutes of sitting," Kurt said as he moved in closer. "Sitting for too long is a bad idea. Actually, standing for too long is a bad idea as well. We're made for movement, really."

Gambit let out a long slow breath and made himself listen to Kurt's nervous rambling. No doubt he had picked up Rogue's trick: distract him by talking about something bland.

"That's fascinating, Kurt," Gambit said, determined to latch onto the topic and regain control. "Actually, now that you've mentioned it, I do have a preference for being on the move."

"I do too," Kurt replied. "It's a pity Ororo thinks acrobatics is too much of an adrenaline rush, or we could do that."

"That, or we could do parkour around the school," Gambit said as he felt the edge of his irritation lift.

"Ooh!" Kurt's eyes lit up. "That sounds like fun. Let's do that sometime anyway."

Gambit grinned at Kurt as he removed the charges from his gloves and would-be pirate coat. "You know something? I think we should."

Kurt grinned back. "How about tomorrow?"

"That could work. Is 2 okay? That's not too late for you, is it?"

"Nope," Kurt replied slyly. "But aren't you still in bed then?"

Gambit chuckled knowingly. He had always been a night owl and the whole school knew it. He thought the only reason why certain people weren't trying to change his sleeping habits to something more conventional was because the fewer people who were around him, the less likely he was to hurt someone with an explosion. Unfortunately, most of his explosions were the results of quick bursts of momentary intense emotion, not the slow build of emotion as he had suffered with sewing his pirate coat, which he could be talked down from.

"I'll have been up for about an hour by then," Gambit assured him. "Plenty of time. So, did you want to plan our route? Or shall we just improv the whole thing?"

"Hmm, maybe a bit of both? We could develop a general idea of where we want to start and where we want to go, and then leave the rest to the moment."

"Sounds good to me," Gambit said, then held up his coat. "So, professional opinion. This salvageable?"

Kurt smiled nervously, a little wary that the reminder of his recent frustration might cause a resurgence in magenta glowing charges. He took the coat-to-be and inspected it.

"Yeah, this is salvageable. Just need to take these stitches out." Kurt ran his thick finger over the offending thread.

"Okay, good," Gambit replied. "Hate to think I was doing all this work for nothing."

"Heh, even if sewing doesn't turn out to be your ideal hobby—"

"Oh, it won't."

"—you'll have an awesome pirate costume at the end," Kurt said. "And we happen to have a pirate simulation for the Danger Room."

Gambit laughed.

There were a number of students outside playing when Gambit stepped onto the back patio at 2 the following afternoon. Kurt was already there, warming up at the bottom of one of the two sets of stairs.

"Oh," Kurt said, in the midst of stretching one leg behind his back. "So it's true, you do know what 2 in the afternoon looks like."

"I do indeed, though I don't know how you can stand being in so much light and sunshine," Gambit replied cheerfully, as he joined Kurt in warming up. "And, and what's that I hear? Is that the sound of happy bird chirping?"

"Nope, that's Barnell, also known as Beak," Kurt said. He pointed towards a student with a bird-like mutation who was making the chirping sounds in question towards a female student with insect-like wings. Gambit recognised her as Angel Salvadore.

"Oh, well, that's okay then."

"I think actual birds have better things to do than hang around noisy people right now."

"You say that now, but I think that there's a few mobs of seagulls who would disagree with you."

"Egads!" Kurt replied in mock-horror. "You know what a seagull is? Why, that would imply not only that you've been to the beach, but you've been there during the day."

"Yeah, it was a novel experience," Gambit said. "Usually I only go at night to skinny dip with the ladies. But during the day was good too: all those sexy femmes in their bikinis."

"Ah, yes. Of course this is why you go to the beach."

"I'm a simple man."

Kurt raised his eyebrows. "I somehow doubt that."

Gambit grinned back at him with a knowing chuckle.

Once he felt he was sufficiently warmed up, Gambit decided to run up the side of the thick stone fence and do a back flip a few times. Kurt joined in after the first two, did three himself, then took off, running into the grounds. Gambit swiftly followed.

Together they vaulted over and onto fences, flipped over small flowerbeds, and did cartwheels on the edge of the fountain. Students began to gather to watch the acrobatic spectacular, but Gambit and Kurt were too caught up in their exercise to notice.

It was an unspoken, mutual decision to move from the grounds to the mansion itself. After all, the mansion had such delights as odd-shaped floors and walls, a variety of roof styles, and decorative features that jutted out from the walls creating ideal hand holds.

There were two spots, on either side of an entranceway, where the wall angled inwards creating two sides of a triangle. Gambit took one and Kurt took the other, and they climbed by leaping from one wall of the triangle to the other. They climbed up two stories in this way.

Kurt got to the top first and trotted across the low-angled roof to Gambit's side in order to check on him. His mutation did grant him surface adhesion, so he had a distinct advantage when it came to wall climbing. Kurt looked over the parapet just in time to see Gambit reach the top and haul himself up. He grinned: Gambit was clearly one of the few who could keep up with him in wall climbing. Kurt probably would've been less impressed if he knew that most of Gambit's experience in wall climbing came from his life-long career as a thief.

Kurt joined Gambit on top of the parapet. Together, they jumped off. They ran across the sloped roof floor and leapt onto the wider part of the parapet on the other side. Their audience gasped as they leapt again, sailing through air with nothing beneath them but a two-storey drop, and landed soundly on the next roof.

They turned and ran along the flat roof to the larger angled one that covered that entire wing of the mansion. They balanced along the top and headed back to the middle of the mansion where the next floor began. The two jumped up, using the decor built into the wall to haul themselves up to the next parapet.

There was just one last floor, which was really just a single room with the stairway that led to the flat stone roof they were standing on then. On the top of this floor was a flag pole that never got used, and a ladder was attached to one of the walls.

Gambit and Kurt made the final climb, raised their arms in triumph and cheered.

"Wow!" "We are the best!" "That was amazing!" "Hell yeah!"

Magenta light spread across the stonework floor. As the glow approached his position, Kurt teleported to the top of the parapet.

"Ah, right," Kurt said, breathing hard from his recent exertion. "This is why you can't have adrenaline-inducing hobbies."

"In hindsight," Gambit replied, also breathing heavily, "we probably should've done this in the danger room."

"Probably."

"Wouldn't have been nearly so much fun though."

"Heh," Kurt replied, and tried to think of something bland to talk about. "Um, so, um…"

"Don't bother," Gambit said. "This isn't the result of my emotions getting the better of me. Trying to distract me will only hinder me."

"Oh, okay!"

An awkward silence fell as Gambit concentrated on holding the charge. He tried to ignore Kurt watching him, but it was a little like having someone looking over your shoulder while you're trying to read: a distraction in itself. His focus slipped for a moment, and the charge expanded. Gambit caught it before it could release, though not before Kurt noticed and gave an audible alarmed intake of breath.

"Could you do me a favour and go find Rogue?" Gambit said.

"Oh, um, sure."

"She's witnessed my adrenaline-induced charges before. She'll know what to do."

Kurt's face brightened. "No problem. Be right back."

Kurt teleported away, much to Gambit's relief.

Rogue was outside, one of the few who was still out the front with her eyes on the mansion. As Kurt approached her, a few of the students still around called to him to tell him how cool it and how amazing he is. Kurt thanked them distractedly.

"Rogue, Remy sent me to find you," Kurt said urgently. "He's, uh, having an incident."

"I had a feeling this was coming," Rogue said. "Remy charging something that is, not you coming to find me."

"He said you'd helped him with adrenaline induced charges before," Kurt said.

He reached out to touch her, but she dropped her shoulder and slunk away from his hand like a cat not wanting to be touched.

"I've only seen a couple," Rogue said, looking back at Kurt, but deliberately keeping her distance so that he couldn't teleport them just yet. "But generally I've found the best thing to do is to leave him the hell alone."

Kurt frowned and paused in his attempts to get close to Rogue. "What?"

"I'm guessing he found you watching over his shoulder while he tried to hold and deactivate the charge very distracting," Rogue said, giving Kurt a sympathetic smile. "He sent you away to get you out of his hair."

"Why wouldn't he just say so?" Kurt asked as his frown deepened.

Rogue shrugged. "He probably figured if he sent you to me, I'd say so for him. He can be very tight-lipped about his feelings, even when they're blatantly obvious to everyone. By the way, how big of a charge are we talking?"

"Oh, well," Kurt pointed to the mansion, "you see the very top floor?"

"Yeah?"

"When I left, it covered most of the floor. Well, the floor part of the roof. Not the parapet, but a little of the flag pole."

Rogue caught her breath. "Okay, maybe he didn't just send you to me for the fun of it. If it's that big and he can't deactivate it quickly after the adrenaline rush is over, anxiety will kick in and then he will need distracting."

"Ah."

Kurt looked at Rogue, and Rogue continued to look up at the top floor of the mansion.

"Okay," she said finally, and walked to Kurt's side. "I think we've waited long enough. Let's go see if he needs help now."

With relief, Kurt put his hand on Rogue's shoulder and teleported them to the topmost parapet. Rogue needed a moment to orient herself: she wasn't in the habit of climbing the roof, let alone standing on the parapet, rather than on the floor behind it.

"Hey Swamp Rat," she said after a moment. "How's it going?"

"It was fun for a time, but all things must come to an end, eh, chere?" Gambit said, his voice deceptively unconcerned.

Rogue nodded as she took in the spread of the charge in her peripheral vision. It was nipping at the base of the parapet.

"And a good thing too," she said, "otherwise there'd be no opportunity to do new stuff and we'd all get bogged down and bored doing the same old stuff over and over again."

Gambit grinned. "Or die from exhaustion."

"Or that!" Rogue grinned back at him. "And we can't have that happening. Especially not today: it's your turn on kitchen for dinner, and I'm really hoping you're cooking that roast beef again…"

She batted her eyes at him hopefully. Gambit chuckled softly, and felt some of the tension slip away, even as he fought to remove the charge from the stonework.

"Yeah, I'm doing the roast beef again. I'm surprised at how popular it was. Anyone would think you guys had never had it before."

"Not like that. I don't know what you put in it, but it's delicious."

"Eh, just a little seasoning. Nothing fancy," Gambit replied. "It was one of the first things Tante Mattie taught me to cook."

"Well it's amazing and I'm already salivating over the very thought of eating it tonight," Rogue said quickly. She kept her voice light and hoped that Gambit wouldn't realise that he just mentioned his past. Talking about his past almost always triggered an incident, or made a current incident worse. "In fact, I think you should make sure you have extra, because it's going to disappear quick smart like it did last time."

"Heh, maybe. I've got a couple of other new dishes though, so do save room for trying those, ma chere."

"More new recipes? Ugh," Rogue glared playfully at him. "Everything you cook is amazing. It's a good thing you're only on once a week, or else I'd be gorging myself at every meal."

"Ah, but if it were every meal, then it would be commonplace, and you'd get bored," Gambit pointed out. "Familiarity breeds contempt."

Which, he felt, was the real reason he had garnered so much praise since he'd been rostered onto kitchen duty: he was just picking recipes that were different from what everyone else was used to.

"Never!"

"Well, if inflating my ego means that much to you, go for it," Gambit said with a grin. "I can't do all the inflating by myself. People would start thinking I was narcissistic."

"You? Narcissistic?" Rogue replied with eyes that glinted with mischief. "Ridiculous."

He chuckled, and as he did, the magenta light vanished from the stonework.

"Hey, you did it," Kurt said, his face lighting up.

The charge immediately reappeared as Rogue winced.

"Uh…" Kurt said uncertainly the same time Gambit swore under his breath.

"So, Remy," Rogue said. "Have I mentioned that the hot and sweaty look works for you?"

Gambit looked up, and the anguish on his face gave way to a small smile as he took in Rogue deliberately checking him out.

"I just love the way your shirt clings to your chest," she went on, and fanned herself with her hand.

"Why, chere, I'm flattered," Gambit replied, smirking up at her. "But really, checking out another man? Whatever would Bobby say?"

"That looking is okay."

"Still haven't told him that we kissed yet, eh?"

"You've kissed?" Kurt exclaimed.

Rogue glanced over at him. 'Um, yeah, actually. I tried to absorb him while we were in the line for the Cure. It didn't work."

"What didn't work?"

"My powers. For whatever reason they didn't work on Remy," Rogue glanced over at Gambit. "Either that, or they did work, and he's just highly resistant."

"So, let me get this straight," Kurt said slowly. "You were int he line for the Cure, so you could, amongst other things, touch people again, and while in the line you found someone you could touch?"

Rogue nodded. "Ironic, huh?"

"Does Bobby know?" Kurt asked as the magenta light vanished from the stonework once more.

"Hell no. We've been fighting so much lately, I'd prefer not to add any ammunition." She sighed. "The guy's still convinced I took the Cure because of him. I don't know what it's going to take to get it through his thick head that it was 100% my decision."

"You may have to go through with your threat to break up with him." Gambit nodded sagely. "Not that's at all self-serving advice." He winked at her.

Rogue chuckled. She knew perfectly well that Gambit had no intention of dating anyone until he got control. The last thing he wanted to do was blow up his girlfriend.

"Maybe. I'd rather it didn't come to that." She sighed.

Gambit shrugged and moved over to join Rogue and Kurt by the wall. It was the first time he had moved since charging up the roof.

"Well, as much as I'd love to hang out here all day, I've got work to do," he said. "And I guess you two probably do too."

"I'll teleport us down," Kurt said.

He put a hand on each and teleported then back down to the ground. Gambit bid his farewell and departed, leaving Rogue an Kurt alone.

"Next time, Kurt," Rogue said, "when you see the light disappear, don't comment on it. Sometimes the light vanishes before the charge is completely removed and—"

"Ah, so that's what happened."

"Yeah, he was still connected. And you commented, and that reminded him and yeah…" Rogue shook his head.

"Sorry."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I had to learn the hard way myself."

"By the way," Kurt said as he shifted a little from foot to foot. "I know it's not really my business, but I do have to wonder if you flirting with Remy when you're dating Bobby is all that appropriate."

Rogue shook her head. "If it were anyone else, I wouldn't flirt with him. But, well, you've seen Remy. He flirts all the time, even though he has no intention of taking things further. I don't know… I have the impression that flirting is a…a…a comfort zone for him. He always seems more relaxed when he's flirting."

"Ah." Kurt considered this for a moment. He'd seen Gambit flirting with the women before, but this was the first time he'd seen Rogue initiate anything. "Hmm, perhaps you're right there. Thank you for indulging me."

Rogue smiled. "Any time, Kurt. I appreciate you looking out for everyone."

Gambit entered the rec room some hours later. He saw Rogue and Bobby playing pool, while Kitty, Piotr, Kurt, and Morph were on the lounges in front of the TV. It was after curfew for the student body, so the rec room was quieter than usual. Thus, Gambit couldn't help but notice that two seconds after he entered the room, all conversation ceased. He had a feeling that If he asked "whatcha doing?" he would be met with some awkward response, because they'd all been talking about him.

"Hey Remy," Bobby said, breaking the silence and sparing Gambit the need to come up with a quip, "I hear you almost gave the school a new sky light today."

Rogue gave Bobby a disdainful glance as she lined up her next shot on the pool table. He didn't notice.

"Well, I thought about it," Gambit said, casually walking over between the lounges and the pool table. "But then I realised it really wouldn't go with the existing decor."

"I didn't know you were so conscientious about that stuff."

"I have to be in my line of work," he said, an eye on Rogue as she knocked the 4-ball into the side pocket.

Bobby paused and frowned. "Just what is your line of work, anyway?"

"Why, home maintenance, of course," Gambit replied slyly.

There was no way he was admitting to anyone at Xavier's that his true vocation was thief.

Maintenance worker was his current job, and it was a novel experience for him: having a legitimate occupation. Xavier's did its best to mitigate costs, but adult students like himself had to pay their own way somehow. His choices had been live on-campus and contribute, or live off-campus and pay school fees. Since his power problems were making his stealing rather difficult, Gambit opted to live on-campus.

"Right, of course," Bobby said. As his back was to Rogue, he didn't see her shot send the cue ball into the 6-ball, knocking both the 6 and the 3-ball into one of the corner pockets.

"Do you have any idea how difficult it is to make seamless repairs in this place?" Gambit said. "Have you seen the state of the carpet? It has so many patches, we really need to replace the whole thing. Not to mention having to match paint shade exactly. And don't even get me started on trying to fix the wooden panelling, especially with the inlay in the walls—"

"You know," Morph said as he transformed into a generic hardware store guy. "I'm pretty sure they have ways of duplicating exact shades of paint with computers now," Morph said.

"Shh!" Gambit said, grinning at him. "Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story."

"Ahh," Morph touched the side of his nose as he transformed into an old-fashioned style newspaper reporter . "I gotcha, I gotcha."

"Your turn," Rogue said pointedly to Bobby.

"Okay great." Bobby turned and looked at the table. "Hey, didn't you have more balls on here?"

"I did," Rogue replied blandly. "I sunk them."

"Huh."

"You should pay attention to the game more, harass Remy less."

"I'm not harassing Remy," Bobby said defensively with a frown. "I'm just making light. Remy knows I don't mean any harm."

"Oh really?" Rogue turns her scathing look from Bobby to Gambit. "Did you know that?"

Gambit hesitated briefly as he sat down on one of the couches in front of the TV. He could feel everyone's eyes on him.

"Well, I didn't know, exactly, but this is Bobby we're talking about," Gambit replied languidly. "Who can take anything he says seriously?"

"There you see—" Bobby began to say to Rogue, then everyone saw his lightbulb moment as his head jerked towards Gambit. "Hey!"

Gambit grinned wickedly at him as Kitty, Piotr, Morph, and Kurt chuckled.

"Okay fine," Rogue said. "Point taken."

Bobby turned his wounded look on Rogue, and appeared to start to say something, but thought better of whatever it was. He sighed dramatically and turned his attention to the game at hand.

"So," Gambit said, gesturing to the TV, which looked like it was on the news channel. "You guys watching anything?"

"We were trying to decide on a movie," Kitty said.

"Hey," Kurt said with a frown as he looked at the screen. "Can you turn the sound up?"

"Sure," Kitty replied with a shrug as she turned the volume back up.

"…bank was robbed today by four men armed with guns and weaponised prosthesis," said the voice of Trish Tilby over the top of some amateur phone video depicting the four men in question as they ran away from the scene, fires burning in the background. "Although police did respond to the silent alarm, the robbers blew up the entire blockade before making their escape."

One of the four had a tanklike lower half, and was armed with a gun. The second had a spinning blade attached to his prosthetic left arm. The third also had a prosthetic left arm, but his had a build in gun. The final man was using a gun, but also had a pair of prosthetic legs.

"That's some serious hardware," Gambit said musingly. "But not very subtle."

"Except for the guy with the legs," Kitty said.

"True, but for all we know those things can shoot out cannonballs or something."

Kitty shook her head. "I have this great image in my head of this guy trying to shoot a cannon out of his foot, and physics taking over and knocking him backwards. But this," she gestured to the screen, "is not a laughing matter."

"No," Kurt said quietly. "It's not."