Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men

…

Date: December 22

Time: 7:42 pm

Location: At a random pizza place in Bayville

The night was dark, cold, and wet. Dark because the sun had gone down two hours before as was normal in winter, and cold and wet because of the thick falling snow from the rapidly worsening blizzard.

Rogue had not wanted to go out in the first place. Really, neither had Remy. But it was, after all, as Kitty had put it before she had rudely shoved them out the front door, Rogue's turn to pick up dinner. And it wasn't that Remy wasn't pleased or eager to be able to spend some extra time with Rogue, but he had been confused when Kitty had insisted that he come along with her to pick up everyone's dinner.

Rogue had been annoyed at this insistence. For one, she was perfectly capable of picking up pizza for the group by herself, despite the falling snow outside. For two, she had been working hard at avoiding Remy all week and throwing them in a car together certainly wasn't helping the avoiding him plan.

And why was Rogue trying to avoid Remy you ask?

The answer was simple. Rogue had been working with Professor X the past few weeks on gaining control of her powers. It was not an easy, or a fun task, and she was having a lot of difficulty in mastering it. And what did not make this task any easier was Remy's constant unabated flirting.

He seemed more excited by the possibility of Rogue's powers being controlled than Rogue herself. Everyday he would come and ask her how it was going, ask her if she could touch yet, and then proceed to 'test the waters' as he put it before trying to kiss her.

Usually this would end up with Remy getting a slap to the face, or a kick to the shins. The last time he had tried it he had gotten the bad—albeit nice since he did get to kiss her—shock of touching the skin of her lips and passing out for hours afterward.

And since that ludicrous event happened, Rogue sought to avoid Remy at all costs.

It had actually worked too. Why, just two mornings ago he had had enough of her avoiding him and attempted to jump into her car as she was pulling out of the garage to head to work. But his plan backfired when he found the door locked and Rogue inside behind the wheel glaring at him. And when she wouldn't unlock it he had jumped onto the hood and refused to get down until she did so.

Of course she had denied his request and screamed at him. Still he didn't budge so she did the only thing she knew to do and started driving down the driveway, swerving left and right to try and throw him off while they screamed at each other. Eventually he had rolled off and landed neatly on his feet and she sped on out of the gates.

Something that neither one of them noticed was Charles Xavier and Hank McCoy, sipping their morning coffee together and watching this all out of the second story window with interest.

So when Rogue's teammates had told her it was her turn to take care of dinner, she didn't think anything of it. That was the normal routine; they fairly shared the responsibility of getting food for everyone. But when Kitty had insisted that Remy go along too, Rogue knew that something was off. But she wasn't exactly sure what and she wouldn't for some time.

She and Remy climbed into the car amid Rogue's warnings to be quiet or face the consequences and went to go get the food. The pizza place was fifteen minutes down the road and they had called in, so the food was already made and waiting for them. In no time at all, they were back in the car and driving back to the mansion.

Rogue turned on her bright lights and squinted to see through the snow. Was it just her, or had it started coming down a LOT harder than it had been before they had left home?

It was so thick and heavy that she drove only ten miles an hour and worried that maybe she should pull over and wait for it to clear up some. But no, they were ten minutes from home, surely they would make it.

They didn't come across another soul out on the road. No doubt everyone else in Bayville had more sense than they had to go out when the weather was so dangerous. Just when the snow had gotten so bad that Rogue had no idea what was in front of her, something under the hood of the car shuddered and everything cut off.

"NO!" She moaned in horror and tried desperately to start the engine again, to no avail. This could not happen. This was horrible. Of all the nights for the car to break down, it had to happen on the one night the weather was out of control? And also the one night that she was stuck in the car with none other than Remy?

Hm…That sounded a little off to her.

Rogue glanced over at Remy. "What's wrong with it?" She asked, motioning towards the dashboard.

He simply shrugged in reply. He hadn't said anything since Rogue had warned him not to. But now he was staring at her with his arms crossed and giving her the look a five year old would give his mother when she told him no.

"You have no idea?" She tried again. He was a guy; surely he knew something about cars. She hoped so; she knew nothing.

"How would Remy know?" He spoke finally, "he's not looking under the hood."

"Well stop referring to yourself in the third person and get out there!" She reached across him and opened his door. But instead of getting out, her grabbed hold of her elbow that she had stretched over him and pulled her closer.

"What do I get if I do?" He purred into her ear.

Her heartbeat now pounding in her ears, Rogue swallowed a big lump of nervousness and jerked away quickly. "I'll come with you," she said before opening the door and stepping out.

"That's what she said." Remy told her as he got out also and walked around to the front of the car.

Rogue was glad for the darkness punctuated only by the dim streetlight overhead—otherwise he would have seen her flushed face. She reached under the hood of the car and started pulling and—nothing happened. What the hell? She had seen people do this all the time and the hood had always come open so easily for them.

She pulled again, harder this time, with still no luck. "What is wrong with this thing?" She asked in frustration.

Remy reached down lazily and pushed the button under the hood.

"Oh." Rogue blushed again, embarrassed.

After that, Remy had opened the hood and disappeared under it. Rogue waited, a little impatiently, shivering and wrapping her coat around her more securely. She glanced around to see where they had stopped. Of course there were no businesses or homes around here. For SOME REASON she had decided to take the back roads. All that was nearby was trees, trees, and then some more trees. And a few street lights.

Every now and then she would hear a 'hm' or a 'uhuh' come from Remy as he messed around with whatever he was messing around with.

Finally, he stood up straight and closed the hood.

"I have found the problem." He announced.

Relief flooded Rogue as she sighed. "Oh, good. What is it?"

"The problem is—I know nothing about cars and have no idea what the problem with the car is." Remy smirked at her incredulous look.

"Are you kidding me?" She shrieked, distraught at having freedom dangled so close before being ripped away again by Remy. "Why did you say that? Oh never mind," she added when he opened his mouth to respond.

Rogue stalked back around the car and got back into the drivers seat. Remy copied her movements as she reached for the phone.

…

Kitty Pryde was proud of herself. Very proud of herself indeed. Her diabolical plan was working out so well, she couldn't believe her good fortune.

Not only had Rogue agreed to go get dinner when it wasn't even her turn to do so, and Remy had gone with her with no question, but everyone else was on board with her scheming. And we're talking everyone. Even Charles, Hank, Ororo, and strangest of all, Logan were all in on it.

Half of them were tired of Rogue not admitting to herself that she liked Remy, when clear as day, she did very much. The other half just wanted some entertainment. It had been a very long time since they had been on a mission and the TV could hold their attention for only so long.

Now, it wasn't as if Kitty was always prying into Rogue's business, but something she saw a week ago had set this whole thing into motion.

She had been observing as of late the way Remy talked to her, the way he would try to hold her gloved hand, and also the way that sometimes Rogue would allow Remy to hold said hand. Remy was unabashedly infatuated with her, and Kitty was sure that Rogue felt the same way, but kept her emotions bottled up.

And now out of the blue Rogue wanted to gain control of her powers? Yeah right! Kitty would bet her whole wardrobe that a certain Cajun had a very big part in Rogue's sudden decision.

And then to top everything off, Kitty had seen Remy kiss Rogue—before he passed out and turned white as sheet that is—and the look on Rogue's face said it all. She didn't try to fight it; no, in Kitty's opinion, she seemed to welcome the kiss and was overly concerned about Remy when he had passed out.

So Kitty had come to the decision that it was her responsibility to get Remy and Rogue together. And how best to do this? Obviously they needed to spend a long, uninterrupted time together, trapped in a broken car on the side of the road while the snow flew romantically down around them.

Yes, Kitty was sure of it, this was the perfect plan.

At first she had planned on doing it all herself. But she ran into several problems along the way. She didn't know anything about cars, and if she was going to sabotage it to make it break down while Rogue was driving it, then she needed someone who did. So she had 'innocently' spoken to Piotr who became suspicious. Eventually she ended up breaking down and telling him everything—and he had thought it sounded like fun and told her to count him in.

Then she became worried that the snow wouldn't be thick enough. Kitty wanted it to be good and thick so there was no way that either Remy of Rogue could just simply walk back home. So she had 'innocently' spoken to Ororo, who had also seen that Rogue was hiding her feelings and decided that she would provide some extra snow clouds that evening.

From there, Ororo had told Logan, Logan had told Charles, Charles had told Hank and Hank had announced it happily to the rest of the X-men in secret one morning.

They had thought to put supplies like blankets and water hidden in the backseat where eventually Rogue or Remy would find them and all set to work gathering such necessities.

Then Bobby, who was good with wires and electronics, thought it a shame that they would go to so much work and not be able to see what was happening in the car. So he took it upon himself to install a tiny, near invisible camera in the rear view mirror so that they would be able to see everything. Then he stole Rogue's phone when she wasn't looking and made it so that any number she happened to dial would just go straight back to the mansion's phone line.

Yes, the plan was set perfectly and so far had gone smoothly.

Ororo had followed the car overhead and worsened the snowfall, purposefully making the car have to work harder. Meanwhile, back at the mansion, everyone was sitting on the sofa, armchairs, and some sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV, watching Remy and Rogue in the car. The only problem with this whole set-up was that there wasn't any sound—Bobby sheepishly confessed that he had forgotten to install it.

Jean had popped some popcorn and they all sat, enjoying themselves when the phone rang.

They had completely expected this and passed it over to Charles who had rehearsed his lines earlier that day.

"Hello?" He said, trying not to snicker into the phone.

"Professor, its Rogue. The car has stopped on us; can someone come pick us up?"

Charles clicked his tongue, trying to sound thoughtful. "Oh I don't know about that, Rogue, the weather looks frightful and I don't feel comfortable sending anyone else out in it."

Rogue fell silent. Charles looked over to the TV and saw that was she was staring at the phone incredulously. "Um…You sentus out in it!"

"Yes, but the snow wasn't as thick then. And I'm sure that you two can take care of yourselves."

"Professor!" Rogue exclaimed, "Be serious, we need help."

"I get what your saying, but please, try to understand that this is a circumstance beyond my control. It is simply too dangerous to send anyone else out while the weather is so treacherous."

Rogue fell silent again; they could see her on the TV rubbing her temple in exasperation. A few of them stifled giggles at this.

"Well then why don't you send out the jet to come get us-" Rogue started, her voice laced with barely controlled anger.

"No, I'm afraid that wouldn't work. The snow might damage the engine."

"Ok," Rogue started, "Then how about Jean and Ororo come fly out and get us-"

"No, they've erm—both gone to bed."

"What? It's not even eight o'clock yet!"

"Oh—what's that?" Charles said as if someone else were speaking to him, "Rogue, I have to go, Charlie Brown Christmas is about to start. There are supplies for such emergencies as this in the trunk. We'll come get you first thing in the morning, have fun and Merry Christmas!"

"Professor!"

Click.

…

Remy watched as Rogue stared at the phone in disbelief. He himself had started to piece this whole thing together. Something about it just didn't seem right. First off, it would be normal that Rogue would go get dinner for everyone, but it was not normal that he was made to come with her.

Second, the snow had gotten insanely thicker after they had gone into the restaurant to get the pizza. So much so that he was certain that a flying white-haired somebody had to have something to do with it.

And thirdly, he was positive that someone had purposefully messed with the car. He was lying through his teeth when he had told Rogue that he knew nothing about cars. And even if he hadn't, anyone could see the abnormally fringed cables and know that someone had deliberately damaged them.

He was willing to bet that there were probably supplies and blankets in the back somewhere. Obviously their teammates were trying to throw them together-something that he didn't mind in the least-but he had to wonder why they were doing it and why they were doing it now when they had never shown any interest in anything like this before.

Oh well, he might as well make the best of a bad—wait, what was he saying? This wasn't a bad situation! He was loving this! This was going to be fun.

Sneakily snaking an arm around Rogue's shoulders, he leaned in closer to her and blew gently on her ear. This was a simple move that he knew from years of experience to work. Ears were a girl's weak spot. Always aim for the ears. Though he had no doubt that this would most likely NOT work on Rogue, he still tried it nonetheless.

She didn't even notice. She was still staring at the phone with her mouth slightly ajar. Pulling back, he looked at her profile and his mouth fell into a pout. Hmph. Well, if that wouldn't work then he was going to have to work harder.

"I can't believe him!" Rogue said finally, still in disbelief, "that was so weird!"

His attention was only slightly peaked—besides, it's hard to care about anything else in the world when the woman you're in love with is five inches away from you—but he questioned her remark anyway. "You can't believe who? What did they say?"

"Professor X said that they couldn't come get us until morning!"

He held back a laugh. Yes, obviously this had all been staged. "Oh…well that's not so bad."

Rogue flashed her eyes on him angrily. "We're going to freeze to death! How is that not so bad?"

He scooted a little closer to her, thankful that the front was just one long seat and there was nothing to hold him back. "Don't worry chère," he said quietly into her ear, "Remy will keep you good and warm."

She stared at him for moment, and for one small instant he could have sworn he saw something akin to excitement flash in her eyes. But it passed so quickly, he was sure he must have imagined it. Rogue had never given him any reason to believe that he was ever going to get anywhere with his flirtations.

True there had been the occasional time when she would wait just a little too long to throw his arm off of her shoulder or pull her hand out of his. True that even though she refused him at every turn, still she never tried to avoid his company (not counting the last week) and had even sought him out a time or two.

But she'd never flirted back with him, had never given him any reason to believe that she was enjoying herself. Not that that was going to do anything to stop him, of course.

"Remy better keep his hands to himself!" Rogue snapped after a moment's silence.

"Or we could always do something else to…heat things up," Remy said suggestively, ignoring the dangerous warning in her voice and leaning closer.

Again, she stared at him for a moment before answering. The shiver Remy felt come from her was unmistakable. Though whether it was caused by the dropping temperature in the car or his words, he couldn't be a hundred percent sure. But, he thought to himself, if she would give him five minutes, he would see to it that her shivers were only caused by his all too skillful hands and make her forget that she was even in a car.

Instead of answering his suggestion, Rogue glanced down at the arm that was still around her shoulders and then back up at his face.

"Take it off, or I'll break it off."

Remy reluctantly pulled his arm back, but didn't go back to his side of the car.

"Fine, I will," he nodded before leaning close to her. She leaned away quickly—too quickly—and ended up running the back of her head into the window.

"Remy-" she started but he cut her off.

"But just so you know," he whispered, "tonight, I have something very exciting in mind."

"Uh-What?"

"Oh, don't be afraid. Be…excited. Because it's exciting and it WILL excite you."

Rogue stared at him worriedly—Remy stared back, trying to look sexy (and damned if he didn't). He definitely had something in mind, something VERY—erm—exciting, but he didn't have anything planned. Right now he was mostly just trying to get under Rogue's skin.

Then—to his pleasure, she leaned forward slowly until their noses nearly touched. Remy watched, entranced, as her tongue came out and slid across her lower lip slowly, teasingly. She proceeded to pull the lip into her mouth and bit down on it gently.

This time, he had to hold back a shiver of his own as she made a peculiarly arousing sound. It was something between a moan and sigh and as she let it out, her breath fanned across his neck.

"Remy," she whispered and he shifted—suddenly veryuncomfortable as she said his name like that.

"Mhmm?" Was all he could manage to get out as he gulped.

Up until that point, her gaze had been on his mouth, but now it rose to meet his eyes.

"Are you hungry?" She asked quietly.

Hell yes he was hungry! He thought unbelievingly. Never in a million years had he thought things would go this well. He wanted to nod excitedly, to scream yes, to grab her and make her his—grab her and let her know exactly how hungry he really was.

But, in order to not look stupid, or like a sex starved maniac, or make her scared of him, instead he opted for the more casual approach.

He dropped one finger to her shoulder and traced lazy circles on it as he tried to make his gaze smoldering. It was not hard—he had smoldered before. It just hadn't ever been this fun. And he had certainly never wanted to smolder anyone this badly before.

"Only if you are, chérie," he purred in answer to her question.

Something in her eyes twinkled, exciting him further.

"Well then," she smiled, "We have that pizza in the back. Wanna grab some?"

Remy instantly felt his 'smolder' fall into a pout. He knew it had been too good to be true. Nevertheless, he had hoped. He would never stop hoping with Rogue. And she may not realize it, but tonight was the perfect night to make her his.She would not stop him tonight. NO, it was going to happen TONIGHT!

Rogue thought she was so slick, playing like that. Well…she was, but that was beside the point. The point was, she had just fanned the flames and that did nothing to help her situation. If she was going to play like that, then so could Remy.

Remy suddenly grinned—a mischievous grin that spoke in volumes and made Rogue look worried again.

"Why of course, sweetheart, I would love some pizza." He said cheerfully while reaching into the backseat with one arm. He didn't move an inch away from her to do this or even break eye contact with her, something she was starting to look uncomfortable about.

He came back with one box and presented it to her.

They stared at each other for a long moment—silently daring one another to break first.

Finally, after a long stretch of silence, Rogue snapped.

"Ok, back off now!"

Remy broke out in a grin. "Are you sure that's what you want?"

"Yes, I'm sure," she rolled her eyes, "do it now!"

"That's what she said."

"Remy!"