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Chapter 17: Maybe tomorrow.

Sunday, 4:40 pm.

She felt good.

Didn't try to figure out why, just letting it be for a while.

And then she remembered being so close to him, on the bike, with her face against his back and her arms wrapped around him. Close, just like the night they met and, for some reason, she decided to go where she had never been with anyone; close, like that time in the alley, next to the mall, when he wouldn't let her go; so close, and he wasn't afraid of her, not even after everything she had done.

There are times when a single thought stays stuck in your mind and you don't want to think about anything else, because you just don't want to lose it.

Like this time.

But then she finally opened her eyes and stretched her whole body, still lying on the bed. She wasn't wearing her own clothes anymore, but something that Jean gal had got her; she said they'd go shopping soon.

"Shoppin'!" Rogue muttered, rolling on the bed to take a better look of the place. "That ain't too much of a familiar word t' me".

It was the same bedroom she had been in a few hours ago, when she decided to run away for the nth time; but now… now what?

The professor had said so many things, like this was the safest place for her and so on, but there was one thing she stayed hooked up to: could it be possible? It had been a long time since she refused to keep saving useless hopes, especially when Mystique told her she could never control it. But the Prof thought differently. Could it be?

So she got up, combed her hair and looked at herself in the mirror, wondering if this was the same person that put on some stupid heels and mini skirt, and went out to leave a track of unconscious guys behind her. She had always wanted to change that, and it seemed like now she had her chance, knocking right at the door.

A while later, she started to wander around the hallways of the huge X-mansion; she still felt weird, like she was an intruder about to get caught at any moment.

"Hi!" someone shrieked behind her, and she couldn't avoid gasping "Are you Rogue?"

She turned around to face a brunette girl with a pony tail, smiling widely.

"Yeah… an' yah're…?"

"I'm Katherine, but everyone calls me Kitty, so you can like totally call me that way too. Nice to meet you!" the younger girl offered her hand for a hand shaking.

"Sorry, Ah don't think yah'd like that" Rogue said, showing the other girl her bare hand.

"Oh! Oh… oh…" Kitty's worried face was rather funny. "I'm sorry! I told myself I wouldn't, like, mess up with it, and… oh… I'm so sorry…"

"Hey, don't worry" Rogue smiled slightly.

The other girl continued:

"Don't you wanna come to the movies with us?"

"Ah?"

"To the movies! Everyone's going"

Everyone? It seemed a big word; how many people really lived in the house? According to Remy's memories… quite a bunch.

"Eh, no, thanks; maybe some other time".

"All right" Kitty said friendly. "But I gotta introduce you to everyone, ok?"

"Ah guess" Rogue shrugged, and after saying good bye, Kitty left, walking down the hallway.

"Gosh… could Ah really be part of this people? Part of that everyone?" Rogue sighed, and kept walking.

She made it to the kitchen, which was way bigger than any place she had lived in during the past year. Now she came to think of it, she was a little hungry, so she opened the fridge and searched for something appetizing to eat; there were a lot of vegetables and fruits though.

"Don't these fellas eat real food?"

"Some of us do"

She looked up, to find Logan entering to the kitchen. He didn't look at her, he just went straight towards another fridge and took out some sausages, bread, ketchup, mayonnaise and butter. Quite a nutritional bomb.

"Go ahead" he announced Rogue, who went and grabbed some milk, cereal and cookies.

They both sat down at the table, preparing their meals, and even though she tried not to make eye contact with him, she noticed he sliced the bread with his claws.

It was starting to rain outside.

"Goddamn it!" the Canadian exclaimed, when some ketchup went to land straight on his white t-shirt. "So… I heard you ran away again, last night" he said brusquely.

"Yeah…" she stuck inside her mouth the first spoonful of cereal. "But Ah'm here again, so… that's the whole story".

"Is it?" he raised a brow. "Can't blame you, anyway. I'd have done the same thing".

"Why? Is it that bad in here?"

"No. But I don't appreciate being bossed around either".

She finally stared at him fully; he didn't seem so mean at this hour of the day.

Her bowl was almost empty when Scott showed up:

"Rogue, how are you?"

"Ah'm 'kay" she answered vaguely; seemed like everybody had something to ask to the new girl on the block.

"I'm glad. This is the best place for you; for all of us" he continued. "You'll be safe from that kind of people, the ones chasing you yesterday".

She really didn't know what to say to this, because she had already heard it about a dozen times in less than twenty four hours; so she just said the first random thing se could think of: "Yeah… those damn crack heads need to get a life".

"Eh… just wanted to let you know" Cyclops adopted this patronizing attitude: "We don't curse in this house".

"Oh" she raised her brows; then, pointing out at Logan: "An' how come he can curse an' Ah can't?"

Scott seemed all weirded out at hearing this: "Oh, er… well, he shouldn't…" he stuttered. That's when Logan turned towards him, narrowing his eyes:

"You better repeat that, Summers, but this time, say it to these" he popped out the claws in one threatening fist. Scott frowned and had no other choice but leaving, shaking his head.

Rogue was chuckling, realizing not everything was rainbows and butterflies about these people.

"We're gonna be getting along" Logan recognized, staring at her, and kept eating.

(…)

Sunday, 7:05 pm.

The library was amazing; they had all kinds of books and so many, they hardly fitted in the big room. But she'd have time to read them later on; now she just wanted to go back to her bedroom and rest for another while. It had been such a different day compared to her previous life: she was in a real home, with people trying to be nice at her; heck, she even had two full fridges, when a couple of days back, she only had last day's leftovers. Things seemed to be getting better… that was unusual.

So she climbed up the stairs and walked down the hallway slowly. She didn't want to, but she wanted it so bad at the same time: to see Remy. A part of her kept telling her it'd be really awkward to live under the same roof than him after everything that had happened, specially her little strip show; but something else inside of her, reminded her she hadn't felt so good and so close to anyone in ages, and maybe never before. So she walked the last steps to her bedroom, waiting to suddenly hear his voice behind her back.

But it didn't happen.

So she came in, sighing, stopping in her tracks right away:

"What in the hell are yah doin', LeBeau?"

He was lying contentedly on the bed, his hands crossed underneath his neck, not to mention the smirk on his face.

"Dere y'are, chere! Remy's waitin' for y', of course".

She rolled her eyes, trying to look annoyed, but not quite accomplishing it.

"All right… Ah ain't gonna ask anythin' else, just get out of mah bed, would yah?"

"Yer bed?!" he raised his brows in mock surprise. "Dat means y're stayin', hein?"

"Yep… so it seems".

"Den I'll have t' keep an eye on y', so y' don't flee from us, an' go get 'n trouble again".

"Ah can very well take care of mahself, yah know?"

"Pardon?!" he interrupted her.

"…most times…" she continued, realizing she couldn't lie about this one. "… Or, sometimes". When pronouncing the last syllable of this word, her mouth formed a smile Remy thought was one of the most dazzling things he had ever seen; she was smiling sincerely, recognizing she had messed up, getting along with him. "Now: get outta there!"

"Bien, I will; but I've got my conditions".

"Conditions?!"

"Oui; if y' want yer bed back, y' first have t' check in here" and saying this, he showed her one of the pockets of his jacket.

"What?! What for? Yah crazy? God knows what's been in there"

"Ah, I better get myself comfortable; I kinda like it here, actually" Remy said, looking around the bedroom.

Rogue sighed deeply and narrowed her eyes; what was he up to this time?

"If there's somethin' nasty in there, Cajun, Ah swear Ah'll…" she did as he asked, and then her eyes brightened up in surprise. "Oh mah Gawd!" she laughed, taking the little turtle out of his pocket. "How did yah…? When…?"

"Y' thought Remy was gonna let y' escape from our date, without sayin' good night? Went t' make a little visit, but de Wolverine an' Jean arrived first".

Then, she sat on the bed, next to him, and he sat up by her side; she stared at Sugah's face: the turtle wasn't displaying any signs of extra joyfulness or happiness about meeting Rogue again, so she placed it on her leg, next to her knee.

"Thanks; this is the only thing I'd need to bring from mah… place" she whispered, looking down at the turtle; it was so hard to meet Remy's eyes when memories of that night came to her mind. "An'… thanks for last night, an'…" it didn't get any easier, so she closed her eyes "…Ah'm sorry 'bout what Ah did the other time, in the bar, an'… later on, an' stealin' your car an'…"

"Hey, hey" he forced her to look at him, raising her head by her chin. "Forget all dat; we would have never met otherwise. We wouldn't be here talkin', livin' together…"

"What do yah mean livin' together?"

"We technically do, cherie: in de same house".

"Whatever" Rogue huffed. "But anyway, Ah feel like an idiot every time Ah think 'bout it. An' Ah can't believe Ah'm even sayin' this t' yah, but… Ah'm sorry. Again".

"I wouldn't change a thin' of it" Remy sentenced, making her heart beat a little faster. "Besides, it was sorta fun, lookin' back at it".

"Really?" she smiled. "Was it fun t' be fooled by a gal?"

"Oui, for a change" he winked. "But y' know? Y' still owe me one thing".

"What?"

"Y' left poor Remy all alone in our date last night…"

"It wasn't a date"

"It was."

"It wasn't!"

"So, I was thinkin': why don't we pick up our non-date right where we left it?"

She bit her lip before answering: "An' why would a guy like yahself possibly want t' go out with a girl like me?"

"Y' mean: smart, obstinate as hell, interestin', gorgeous…?"

"Untouchable" she pointed out, swallowing hard, but he didn't seem surprised or weirded out at this.

"I was wonderin' de same thin'; until y' came in by dat door an' I saw yer face again. Dere's somethin' 'bout it, y' know? Dere's somethin' 'bout y'…" but then, she abruptly started to laugh. "What?"

"Gosh, Remy: that was so cheap" she giggled, attempting not to fall for it; not to believe in his words, and trying to take them just as a joke.

"Why?! What do y' want me t' do?! It's true!" he didn't want to mention it right then, but he heard the conversation she had with the Professor; he told her that, with plenty of mental work stuff sessions, she could gain complete control of her power. "Every mutant can accomplish it; you do not have to be the exception" Xavier had said to her.

When her laughter faded away, he continued: "So, what do y' say? T'morrow night?"

Rogue smiled again, comprehending how much her life had changed in a few days; it's in the little things, in the smallest decisions we take, that we can transform everything around us, without even realizing of it at the moment. She could have gone to another bar; she could have rejected Remy, or she could have never left the hotel that night. But it seemed she had chosen right, for once.

And she suddenly remembered about this song she liked a lot:

"…I wanna breeze and an open mind,
I wanna swim in the ocean,
Wanna take my time for me
All me.
So maybe tomorrow
I'll find my way home…"

She finally stared into Remy's eyes, with no shame about the past: "Maybe".

"Mebbe?" he repeated.

"Yeah… maybe tomorrow".

"Bien; fair enough".

Sugah gave a few steps on Rogue's leg, and suddenly fell to the floor. But it was ok, she was a strong turtle. So she walked a little more and found a nice cosy place on the carpet, in a corner of the room.

It was comfortable there. She kinda liked it.

END

NOTE. WOOHOO! It feels so funny to write that word: "end". WOW! This fic meant so much to me, I really feel like it's been with me all this time, and I wanna thank you guys so much for joining me. There were times when I thought I had messed up big time, and I got to think there was no way out with this story, but then I managed to put it together, and I wouldn't have accomplished it without the support of each and every single one of you: reviewers, and readers. Thank you! Cookies and friendly turtles for you guys! :-)

P.D.: the guys in the bar that attacked Remy, they were security guys of the bar, or friends with the guy Rogue was, and Remy hit first (choose the one you like better). Wanted to explain it in the fic, but I didn't find the right place for it. Anyway! Thanks again! :-)

P.D.2: The song is "Maybe tomorrow", by Stereophonics.

P.D.3: Thanks to "The oh so bored one"; she/he unintentionally helped me with a line of this fic, that I took from the review. Hehehe ;-)