"Ah.  Take a seat, then, and we will resume.  You can see me after class to catch up on anything you've missed, Remy."

Remy took a seat near the front and tried to pay attention as McCoy began speaking again.

#

Lunch slowly rolled around and the kids all gathered in the halls or the cafeteria, a few leaving campus to eat elsewhere.  Roberto entered the cafeteria, scanning around until he found the group he was looking for.  He walked over to them and slid into a seat, saying a quick 'hi' to Bobby and Ray.  He turned to Amara and Jubilee who seemed to be deep in conversation about something then turned a questioning gaze on Bobby and Ray.  They shrugged a little helplessly.

"Just listen," Ray said.  The trio turned their attention back to the two girls.

"Mmmmm, I wonder what his eyes look like?"  Amara said dreamily.

"They're definitely brown, a deep hazel brown."

"No way!  They'd be blue, a beautiful cobalt blue.  Oh God and those shades and the trench coat make him look so cool!"

Roberto groaned loudly and the two girls looked over at him, angry that he had disturbed their discussion.

"You're talking about that new guy, aren't you?"

"Oh my God!  You know him?!  Are you friends with him?  Would you introduce us?  What's he like?"  Amara shot at him.  Roberto blinked his eyes at the rapid fire questions.

"I don't know him.  Me and Kurt kinda… ran into him this morning.  The guy seems like an absolute jerk."  The girls gawked at him in horror.  "What?"  He shook his head.  "The guy is a nutcase.  I mean, come on, sunglasses inside?"

"Scott wears sunglasses inside," Jubilee pointed out.  Roberto didn't bother giving her the obvious answer that Scott didn't really have a choice.

"Its summer and he still wears a coat!"  Roberto threw his hands up in the air in exasperation as both the girls got dreamy looks again.  The bell rang and Roberto stood with a relieved sigh.  "Thank god…"  he muttered, walking away from the group.

#

At the end of school, Roberto sluggishly made his way towards the detention room to serve out his one hour of prison.  He figured that he was lucky to get off that easily.  Kurt was waiting outside the door for him, scuffing his foot against the floor and staring at his feet.  He looked up when Roberto approached him.

"Let's go get this over with," Roberto said rather angrily.  Kurt nodded and followed Roberto into the room.  They took seats apart from each other, knowing from experience that they would be told to anyway.

Roberto figured that he may as well get his homework done while he waited for the time to pass.  At least it was nice and quiet here, the mansion was so crowded with kids that it was nearly impossible to get anything done without being disturbed.  Besides that, he guessed that he would be spending some time with Wolverine after this latest infraction of the rules.

He began to work on the math problems laid out in front of him and was soon absorbed in the work.  He didn't notice when the teacher dismissed them until Kurt was at his side, trying to gain his attention.

"You go on without me.  I just wanna finish these problems," he said distractedly and waved Kurt away.  Kurt shook his head but didn't protest and left for the mansion and the, most likely, awaiting Logan.

It was another thirty minutes before Roberto finally finished all his homework and gathered his stuff.  A quick stop by his locker to drop off whatever he wouldn't need and he was ready to head back to the mansion.

He walked quickly across the school parking lot and almost jumped out of his skin when a hand landed on his shoulder.  He didn't show his alarm though and, instead, turned to coolly regard the two boys that were standing behind him.  He raised an eyebrow in question at them, a look of impatience on his face.

"Aren't you one of those muties from that Xavier place?"  one of them sneered.  Roberto rolled his eyes; he did not need to hear this again.  Deciding that these two morons were not worth the time, he turned and began to walk away.

"Hey!  We were talking to you, mutie!" The first one, goon number one Roberto decided, grabbed hold of Roberto's arm and spun him back around.

"You do not want to be messing with me," Roberto bit out.  These guys were asking for it and Roberto thought about conveniently 'forgetting' about the warning the Professor had given them to not use their powers in public.

"Oh yeah?"  replied goon number two, oh so intelligently.  Again Roberto had to roll his eyes in disgust.

"In case you hadn't noticed, mutie, you're outnumbered here.  There ain't nothing you can do to us."  Roberto snorted, laughing at them.  He was about to prove them wrong when he felt another hand on his shoulder.  He turned around fully expecting to see goon number three but found himself looking into dark sunglasses.

"Well, why don' we jus' even de numbers out a bit, eh?"  Remy drawled, casually flipping a card between his fingers.  The two goons looked from Remy back to Roberto before mumbling something along the lines of 'this isn't over yet' and turning away.

Roberto angrily shook off Remy's hand which still rested on his shoulder and turned to glare at him.  Remy looked at him in amusement, though Roberto couldn't tell due to the sunglasses that covered his eyes.

"An' dis would be de part when you say 't'anks for de help' and den I say 'no problem, anytime'," Remy dead panned at him with a lopsided grin.

"I could have dealt with it," Roberto gritted out between his teeth.

"Ah, I see.  Alright, de next time I see y' about t' get your ass kicked, I'll just stand by and enjoy de show," Remy chuckled as he turned and walked away, leaving Roberto to scowl after him in the empty parking lot.

#

"Hey, mom!  Y' home?"  Remy called out into the still house.  There was no answer and he figured that she must still be out job hunting.  He knew that his father would not be home until the late hours of the night, if at all.

Out drinking again, Remy thought, as was the usual for Jean-Luc.  Remy refused to think of him as 'dad'; the man didn't deserve that title.  Remy fervently hoped that Jean-Luc would end up drinking himself to death or maybe get into a fight with someone that he couldn't handle.  Then he and his mother could finally live a normal maybe even happy life.

Why she refused to leave that man was a mystery to him.  Oh, she had told him why but he still didn't understand.  She had married him, bound herself to him and, no matter how much he slept around, or beat her, or beat Remy; she couldn't break those vows as that would be going against what God said.

So Remy stayed with her, he couldn't let her deal with Jean-Luc's violence alone and as long as he was there he was able to deflect his father's anger away from his mother and onto himself.

He had begged Mary to leave with him.  They could run somewhere Jean-Luc could never find them.  Away from the pain and this miserable existence.  Surely God would not want her to stay with a man like Jean-Luc.  But she had refused, telling him to leave but she would stay and remain faithful.  After all, didn't God always have a reason for doing things?  Remy could see no reason for this though.

Remy brought himself out of his dark musings long enough to shrug out of his duster and set his sunglasses on the table next to the door.  He shuffled into the kitchen to get dinner started and hopefully finished by the time his mom got back.

He hoped she had been successful in finding a job; he himself would look for one after school the next day.  He was just gathering all the ingredients that he would need to make Gumbo when the phone rang and he rushed to answer it.

"Hello?"  he spoke into the receiver.

"'Ey, Remy."  Remy groaned inwardly.  This was just what he needed, a call from his no account brother, Henri.

"What do y' wan'?"  Remy said none too nicely into the phone.  Henri sounded rather upset and Remy felt only vaguely curious as to why.

"Is Jean-Luc dere?"

"Non, he's probably out gettin' drunk again," Remy sneered.  "Why?"

There was a long sigh on the other end.  "Mercy left me."

Remy laughed.  "'Bout time she came t' her senses!"  Henri had acquired all of Jean-Luc's traits and Mercy, his girlfriend, would often come to Remy for advice or comfort.  He had told her numerous times to ditch him and he was relieved to find that she had finally listened.

"Fuck you, Remy.  Just tell him I called."

"Right," Remy snorted.  "I'll try not t' forget."  Remy hung up the phone, not bothering to wait for a response, and went back to preparing dinner.  He was glad that Henri had elected to stay in New Orleans rather than come to Bayville with them.  It was bad enough having to deal with Jean-Luc.

The call from Henri reminded Remy that he had promised to call Belle tonight.  She was one of only two people he had ever let close to him back in New Orleans.  The other was his cousin Emil.  He hated being away from them and had already begun to miss them terribly.  He trusted them like he trusted nobody else except his mother. They were people he could talk with about his father or any other problems that might be going on and there were always seemed plenty of problems.  But, he was on his own now.  His mother had enough things to deal with, she didn't need to hear his own problems.  Like the fact that he was a mutant with an increasingly difficult power to control.  He would call Belle later after dinner and assure her that everything was going okay.

#

It was an hour before Roberto finally made it back to the mansion and, as he had guessed, Wolverine was waiting for him down in the danger room.  He grumbled to himself when the Professor's voice entered his mind and told him to go down there for an extra hour of training.  He put on his uniform and headed for the danger room, the whole time thinking that it was unfair that he should have to suffer through two punishments in one day for the same thing.

When Wolverine had finally finished trying to kill Roberto in hand to hand combat it was already time for supper.  Roberto rushed to take a shower and change; he didn't want to be late.  Not that he would get into trouble but those who were late often missed out on all the good food and were forced to eat whatever slop was left.

He arrived and took a seat next to Kurt who was already pilling his plate high with food.

"What?"  Kurt mumbled around a mouthful of food.  Roberto blinked at him but didn't answer and turned to fill his own plate.

Throughout dinner, Roberto noticed Kurt and Bobby sharing several embarrassed glances from across the table.  Bobby would look up, grin at Kurt and Kurt would drop his gaze a blush darkening his fur.  Roberto looked at the two of them and wondered what the heck was going on.  He knew they weren't telling him something.  From the way they were looking at each other, one would almost think they were flirting with each other.  But no, that would mean they were… And they couldn't be… that… Could they?  Roberto resolved to find out what was going on between the two boys.

#

Kurt sneaked carefully through the halls towards Bobby's room.  Why he was sneaking he wasn't really sure, it was not the first time that they had hung out in Bobby's room but it was the first time for this particular reason.

Two days ago, Bobby had cornered him in the library at the institute and hesitantly confessed to Kurt that he had a crush on him.  Kurt had been stunned to say the least and had stood speechless doing a pretty good imitation of a fish.  Bobby had started to turn away, shamefaced and dejected when Kurt had stopped him.  He simply couldn't understand how someone as popular and smart as Bobby could want someone like him.  He would have to be a complete fool to say no.  So he said yes the best way he could think of and kissed Bobby lightly on the lips.  Bobby's reaction had been more than ecstatic and Kurt had been surprised that he didn't start shouting out loud.

After Bobby had realized that Kurt was not going to turn him down he had lost all his shyness and quickly asked Kurt to meet him in his room in a couple of days so they could spend some time together.  Kurt had readily agreed and after about an hour the two had parted ways, deciding to keep the relationship a secret until they were on more solid ground.  Kurt could only hope that the Professor wouldn't figure it out before then.

Kurt knocked lightly on Bobby's door and entered when he heard the 'come on in' from Bobby.  Bobby was sitting on his bed and grinning ear to ear when Kurt stepped into the room.  Kurt couldn't help but smile back as he made his way over to Bobby and brushed his lips against the other boy's.  Bobby sighed happily into the kiss and wrapped his arms around Kurt's neck, pulling Kurt onto the bed next to him.  Kurt indulged them in a moment more of kissing before pulling back and smiling sweetly at Bobby.

"Mmmm, our first date," Bobby joked.

"It's not a date unless you take me somewhere," Kurt joked back.  Bobby looked at him in mock horror.

"Me take you out?  Nuh-uh, it would be you taking me out."

"Like I would spend my well earned money on you," Kurt shot back with a grin.

"Maybe I could convince you otherwise," Bobby whispered as he leaned in for another kiss. There lips had just barely brushed when the door was flung open and Roberto walked in.

"What the heck is going on… Ookay…"  He trailed off as the two boys jerked apart too late to hide what they were doing.  Roberto blinked at them in surprise before backing out of the room and mumbling an apology.

Bobby and Kurt looked at each other before breaking into giggles at the look of surprise on Roberto's face.

"We should go and make sure that he doesn't tell anyone," Kurt said, getting off the bed and hauling Bobby up with him.  They left the room and made their way to Roberto's.  They walked into the room without knocking and saw Roberto sitting on his bed, facing the window.  They shared a concerned glance.

"Uh, you okay, man?"  Bobby asked stepping up behind Roberto who hadn't acknowledged them when they walked into the room.  "You're not freaked out or anything, right?"

Roberto finally turned to look at them.  "No, just not what I was expecting to see when I walked through the door."

"So, you don't have a problem with us… being together?"  Kurt hoped not.  He didn't want to lose a friend over something as stupid as him liking guys.  He was relieved when Roberto shook his head.

"No, I don't have a problem with it at all.  How long have you two been together?"

"Since two days ago," Bobby answered.  Roberto looked at them taken aback.

"Could you not tell anybody yet?"  Kurt asked.

"'Kay, but why?"

"We want to wait until we're both comfortable with this before telling everybody."  Roberto nodded his understanding.

Bobby and Kurt stayed and talked for a while before leaving Roberto on his own.  It was close to lights out and they still had homework to do.  Roberto lay back on his bed; hands folded behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.  He couldn't help it and smiled as he thought about Bobby and Kurt.  With those two now collaborating together he could just imagine all the pranks that would erupt within the mansion.  He would have to lay low for a little while.  Those two were bad enough alone, combined they would be a sheer terror.  Then again, he could easily blackmail them into leaving him alone by threatening to tell their secret.  Cruel, yes, but it got him immunity from whatever their combined minds would unleash upon the mansion.

He had been honest when he said that he had no problem with them being together.  Actually, that was the problem.  When he had seen the two of them sharing that kiss, he had instantly wondered what it would be like to kiss another boy.  That thought confused him, he had never been interested in guys, he wasn't gay, he liked girls, always had.  So why had he thought about kissing another guy?  It bothered him.  His life was already complicated enough being a mutant, he didn't need to start liking men.  He thought about some of the girls at the mansion.  Jean, Kitty, Amara, all were beautiful women and he knew this.  So he definitely wasn't gay, he still liked girls.

That thought soothed him and he shut his eyes and tried to sleep.  What if he was bi?  His eyes snapped back open and he frowned.  Great…

#

A loud crash reverberated through the house, as if someone had fallen and knocked something over.  Remy groaned as he rolled toward the alarm clock to check the time, 2:53 AM.  Remy wondered what Jean-Luc had managed to knock over this time.  He listened carefully as Jean-Luc dragged himself up the stairs and towards the bedroom that he shared with Mary. He hoped that Jean-Luc would simply pass out without making any trouble.  After listening for any signs of trouble for about twenty minutes, Remy sighed with relief.  It would appear that there would be no trouble tonight.  He slipped back into sleep, wanting to get an early start in the morning.