A/N: In case you haven't figured it out yet, I don't own the X-Men so please don't sue me. However if the good people at Marvel ever wanted to sell them I do have $3 in the bank and it's all their's baby.

This fic is written in three languages. Here's the deal. There was a lot of confussion and as I am attempting to learn these languages from scratch, the translations were very wrong as I was told...over and over again.  Until I can find two incredible French and German betas, I decided to change the format somewhat. 

If a line is written in French it is in italics.  If it is in German, then it is written in bold.   If someone ::Thinks:: something then it is encased in colons.  If there is a ~telepathic conversation~, then it's got squigglies.  Sorry for the confusion. *bows*

Cards, Claws, and Gloves

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here," Jubilee whispers.

Rogue giggles. "It won't be that bad, Jubes. It's only German class."

"Yes, but it is a frickin' immersion class, chica," Jubilee says dramatically as both girls enter the classroom.

"I'm sure that you will do quite well, Miss Lee," Kurt says warmly.

„Um, Yeah. The bathroom's down the hall, Mr. Wagner," Jubes says, confused. Rogue just laughs. Her French is just as good as her English. Growing up in Mississippi, there were times she needed French just as much as English. Kurt had been helping her improve the German her mother insisted she learn. Now, she caught the majority of what Kurt said in his native tounge

"Good Morning, Mr. Wagner". Rogue replies smiling.

Both girls take their seats as Kurt closes the door.

"My name is Kurt Wagner. You can call me Kurt. That is fine. I know most of you have no idea what I am saying but by the grace of God, you may by the end of the year." The class looks blankly at him. "Hopefully."

Rogue stifles a giggle. There is a knock at the door. Kurt keeps talking as his tail snakes over and turns the knob. He glances over at the door. Ororo Monroe stands in the doorway with a tall wiry man with devilish eyes–and not just because they were black and red.

"Excuse me a moment please, class," Kurt says, turning his attention to the newly arrived white-haired goddess.

"Hello, my goddess," Kurt purrs devilishly. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company, my love ? Are you here for a repeat performance of last night ?"

Ororo sighs. ::Incorrigible::,  she thinks. "Behave. As it turns out, I believe that you chose an appropriate language. We have a new student. We don't believe he speaks English. I need Rogue to help tutor him," she says.

"Sweet Jesus. Rouge speaks French," Kurt sputters.

"Fluently," Rogue answers from her seat.

"Great. It will be all over the mansion by lunch," Kurt sighs, slipping into his native tounge.

"I speak that language too, Mr. Wagner," Rogue says cheekily.  "You're secret's safe with me, I swear. It's the least that I can do since you saved my life," she says, collecting her things.

Thank you, Rogue. If you come by later, I will catch you up on what you've missed today.

Thanks, sugar, she replies.

Ororo rolls her eyes. She was definately going to need to learn German.

"Rogue, this is Remy Le Beau. Remy, this is Rogue," Ororo says as the door to Kurt's classroom closes.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Remy purrs, reaching for Rogue's hand. She jerks it away quickly, startling him. The deck of cards in his hand glows pink, involuntarily.

"No offence, sugar. It's just the mutation," she apologizes.

"You don't need to be scared of me," Remy says defensively. "I won't hurt you."

"I can't make you the same promises. It's my mutation I was worried about, not yours," she says calmly.

"Yes, well. Rouge, please show Remy down to the library. He has all of his assignments, but they are in English. We are trying to get a French tutor up here in a few days. Thanks for helping, Rogue, Ororo says, eyeing the two of them. "I have a history class in ten minutes, if you two need anything."

"I'm sure that we'll be fine, Miss Monroe," Remy says, taking her hand in his and kissing it gallantly.

"You are a little devil, aren't you, Mr. Lebeau." Ororo laughs as she walks down the hall.

Then it dawns on Rogue. That is why she's tutoring him. He won't be able to charm her physically. She sighs out loud.

"Is there something wrong, darling?" Remy asks, looking over at Rogue.

"Not at all, sugar. Just getting a little understanding", she says, smiling as she looks over to him. "Are you glowing or are you just happy to see me?" she jokes.

"It's my mutation. If I let go of the pack, it will explode," he replies sheepishly.

"Well sugar, I can't teach you while you are holding a bomb. Let's go find Logan. He will be able to take us to the Danger Room."

"Who is Logan ?" Remy asks.

"He's a friend of mine here. In fact, there he is," she says, beaming at the feral man stalking up the hallway.

"Morning, Logan," she says.

"I don't speak French," Logan snarls.

"Yes you do, you punk. If I still have nightmares, you still speak French," she says stubbornly.

"Fine. I speak French. Happy now?" he growls.

"Yes, but since Remy doesn't speak English, I'll stick to this," she says smugly. "Remy had an accident with his mutation. Apparently, he can make things explode. He's charges a pack of cards and now we need to go someplace like the Danger Room or Mr. Summers' shooting range so they can detonate without taking out half the mansion," she explains.

"I haven't even had my morning beer yet, " he objects.

"Please, Logan ? " she purrs, giving him puppy-dog eyes.

"Fine, kid. Come on, Gumbo. You get to go to the Danger Room with me," Logan growls.

"How did you know I was Cajun?" Remy asks.

"Easy. You reek of it."

"I haven't had gumbo in three days. You just guessed" Remy says smoothly.

Rogue giggled. "Trust me sugar, he's that good."

"As good as you?" Remy drawls.

"Dream on, swamp rat, " she answers.

Remy quickly stifles a chuckle. Both Rogue and Logan catch it.

"He speaks English," Rogue hisses.

"Caught that," Logan says.

"He told everyone that he didn't," Rogue says.

"Slow down, kid. Your German's gotten better since Blue Boy moved in."

"He told everyone that he didn't speak English", she says slower.

"Let's go find out why," Logan says, getting a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"You can't really hurt him, Wolverine," she cautions.

"As you wish, Marie," he says mockingly.

"You can blow up anything in here, Gumbo," Logan growls. "Shoot for the targets down there. We might as well see how good your aim is."

"No problem, my friend," Remy says, easily sending each of the 52 cards sailing across the room to the moving targets.

"Easy as gumbo," Remy says, turning to stare at three metal claws pointed at his throat.

″Okay, bub. Who are you and why did you lie to us?″ Logan asks dangerously.

″Calm down, mon ami, ″ Remy says non-chantly. ″Just seeing if I needed to protect myself. I see that I do,″ he says as, with a finger, Logan's claws glow an iridescent pink.

"Oh, no you don't," Rogue says, already missing her gloves. Thanks to Logan still bouncing around in her head, she saw trouble coming.

″'Night, boys, ″ She drawls touching the faces of both men at once.

"Fuck," say all three at once, as the two men drop to either side of Rogue. On Logan's way down, she impales her hand on his claws and uses Remy's powers to stop the glowing. The weight of Logan's falling body dislodges the adamantium blades from her body.

Scott walks in for a workout just in time to see both men fall, and Logan's claws emerge through the back of Rogue's hand. He breaks into a run as he sees he begin to swoon. He reaches her just as she starts to fall. He scoops her body into his arms, careful of her exposed skin.

He stoops down and checks the pulse of both men. Satisfied both are still alive, he carries Rogue out the doors, hitting the emergency alarm by the door on the way out.

Rogue begins to regain consciousness on the way to Scott's room. He'd already contacted the Professor. Both agreed Rogue needed to go someplace quiet to recover. Remy especially would need to be calmed after his near death experience. For Logan, it was Monday. Of course someone tried to kill him.

"I'm so sorry Scott. I didn't think they'd hurt each other.

"It's okay, Rogue. Both of them are fine. Don't worry about them." Scott says soothingly.

"You speak French?" she asks, still woozy. Having both men in her head yelling at each other made her disoriented.

"Jean did. I picked it up from her." Scott said quietly.

"I'm sorry, love." Rogue says, brushing her hand across Scott's stubbly face. After a moment, she starts to feel her eyes get tingly. She pulls her hand away reluctantly.

"I forgot that I didn't have gloves on," she apologizes. "Why did you let me touch you ?"

"Everybody needs touched, Rogue," Scott answers. "I'm just glad that I didn't shave this morning."

"Me, too," Rogue says, leaning up to very lightly rub her face against his stubble. She sighs prettily.

He nudges his bedroom door open and crosses over to his bed. He places her down on the quilt and covers her with a blanket from the foot of the bed.

He kisses the top of her head through her hair. "Sleep well, beautiful. I'll tell the Professor what happened." Rogue mumbles something and went back to sleep. She had never absorbed two people at once before and her system was shutting down to recover.

Scott stands in the doorway for a while. Watching this girl sleep on Jean's side of the bed was calming. There was a time, not long ago, when this sight would have made him physically ill. Now he can almost hear Jean again. ::I told you it would be okay.::

Scott feels a three-fingered hand on his shoulder. "She's fine, Kurt." he says.

"She must have touched you," Kurt replies, smiling.

Scott pauses for a long moment. "Yes.  Sorry, Kurt. The Professor just finished scaning my mind."

Kurt nods knowingly. "She is something, isn't she?"

"That she is, Mr. Wagner, That she is," Scott replies.

"Do you know why it was so important for her to learn German?" Kurt asks curiously.

"No. Neither does she," Scott replies, never taking his eyes off Rogue's sleeping form.

"I'll let you go, my friend," Kurt says, turning to go.

"Nightcrawler," Scott calls. Kurt turns around.

"Congrats on catching yourself a goddess."

Scott laughs at Kurt's sheepish expression. "Did you really say that in a classroom?" Scott asks.

Kurt shrugged. "I didn't know anyone else spoke French."