Chapter Two- King of Hearts

The air was thick with humidity. It swirled around Gambit like a dark caress. His eyes closed and he breathed it in deeply. There was something about being in a place that you had grown up in, that brought a certain kind of comfort to you.

That comfort could only last so long.

Now, the caress (once gentle and comforting) was that of a tight grip around his throat.

Suffocated. He felt suffocated. He knew his family meant well in their want to comfort and coddle him after so many years of being absent and on the run. He dearly loved his Tante Mattie, but he could only take so much food shoved down his throat.

He could only take so much of Emil and Lapens pranks.

He could only take so much of Henri asking what he had been up to, only to end up disappointed when Remmy couldn't tell him anything. The reason for that was a combination of a contract and guilt.

The Contract he could easily get around, but the guilt not so much.

How could he tell his brother that he had been willingly working for a madman? A man whose goal had been to conquer the human race? Even thinking about how that conversation would go put a knot deep down in Remmy's stomach.

What he couldn't take any of was his pere using him though. He was getting tired of his father coming up with grand schemes to wipe out The Rippers. All somehow linking back to Remmy. It was torture. Having to deal with knowing the man who had brought you into a family didn't really want you as family- but wanted you as a tool.

It was an ache deep down the Remmy couldn't shake when he was around Jean-Luc, and slowly yet surely that ache resonated deep within him everywhere he went in New Orleans.

He was suffocating.

Remmy, took another deep breath, trying to keep the smell of home locked deep within his mind. He didn't think he wanted to come back again. This place, while laced with so many good memories, also stabbed at him with bad ones. Reminding him that everybody just used him. No one really wanted Remmy around for just Remmy, everyone wanted Remmy around so that they could get something out of him. All except maybe Henri and Tante* Mattie, and as much as he loved the two it simply was not enough to anchor him in a place that so much wanted to manipulate him.

It was decided then. He was leaving tonight. He let a thin smile play through his lips as he finally stood up from his sitting position on the docks.

He knew exactly where his next stop would be.

Queen of Hearts. Rogue stared at the offending card, her green-grey eyes narrowed.

It was so odd, the attachment she had to this card. The damn Cajun had passed on some sort of weird card fetish to her.

This was not normal, but even still she held the card in her right hand. Her chest moved rhythmically now, the flush in her cheeks had gone down significantly, and the burning feeling in the pit of her empty chest had decreased. His words, his promise, his feelings echoed through her as she held this card.

You will be fine, Cherie. You got people watching over you He had said the words so smoothly, but so charmingly. She had felt a rush of something assurance she supposed - in that moment. Now, every time negative thoughts (or rather negative Psyches) rushed through her head, telling her that she didn't belong, that she was alone, that no one loved her and no one could ever love her, she found her fingers itching for this card. This reminder. This promise.

He had said those words, as if he was indicating to both the X-men and himself, and despite all the crap he had put her through, she couldn't help but feel some sort of comradery with the man who had kidnapped her.

Was this what Stockholm Syndrome felt like? Maybe.

She shook her head, sighing, and sat up from her position of lying on her bed. There was a thumping on her door, and the pounding in her head had gone away since she had pulled the Queen out.

"One minute," she yelled, "I'm not decent. Don't come in!" she let her bare feet land on the cool oak-wood flooring. Her bare shoulder felt almost chilly as she had previously taken her top shirt off.

She opened her top drawer, which help bras, panties, socks, and gloves. She took the Queen and shoved it underneath and in one of her gloves.

She then moved and slipped her purple lace top over her black spaghetti strap. She then quickly slipped on her one pair of fuzzy green socks and went to open the door. This had all taken about thirty seconds.

At the door stood Kurt, a giant smile on his face as his tail whipped back and forth behind him.

"You wouldn't believe it Mein Schwester**! I can't believe it, and I was there!" he bounced on the balls of his feet and his tail swished behind him quickly. "I don't know vhether to be excited or to be vorried."

Rogue cocked an eye brow, "What happened?"

For half a moment Kurt seemed to be in thought, trying to figure out a way to spit it out, until finally,"Kitty and Lance are back together!"

"WHAT?!"

"Ja! I don't believe it! I vas walking back from school vith kitty, like everyday, vhen lance valks up- yelling all loud-like at Kitty. He vas trying to get us to stop, but then Kitty was trying to get us to go faster, and then- then- well Lance caught up vith us. He grabbed Kitty and," he cringed, "Vell he kissed her. Vell- the first zing I think is that Lance is- I don't know- assulting Kitty. Anyvay I'm not going to just let the creep- kiss her. So I go and pull him off of her- and she gets mad at me." His eyes show off that he is positively angry. "Lance starts trying to hit me- you know how he is- I'm surprised he wasn't using his powers, but he was trying to attack me and I kept teleporting away before he could hit me- and finally Kitty grabbed me and went at me. She goes," his voice turns up several notches, "Me and Lance have, like, totally made up. So whatever you, like, think you are doing, like, defending my honor or whatever. Stop it. We made up and we're okay." he was posotively steeming now.

"I was trying to protect her and help her, but she just blew me off." his eyes lost the fire in them, "I might have- uh- said something a bit hurtful before a 'ported away." he looked down, almost ashamed.

Rogue was never could at comforting people, so she could happily admit that she was a bit relieved to hear, "Like, I don't believe saying 'I totally, like, didn't take you for, like, someone who sleeps around with whoever's willing' is, like, more than a little bit hurtful. Rogue cast a glance down the hallway where none other than Kitty Pryde was standing, her arms crossed in front of her chest and tears streaming down her childish, heart-shaped face.

Kurt went to open his mouth, fire lingering behind a regret in his eyes.

"You know what how about we all go take a seat, uh- in the recreation room? We can grab some chocolate from the kitchen, and talk this out. Okay?" Rogue said before Kurt could say anything he would regret.

"And- popcorn?" Kurt added, his voice a little bit timid.

Kitty chuckled, and Rogue let out a smile, "Yeah. And Popcorn."

With that Rogue swept Kurt and Kitty down the hallway to talk out this entire situaion.

Remmy sat in the high branches of one of the large trees on the grounds of the Xavier institution. His legs stretched out before him while his hands folded on his stomach; a King of Hearts tightly pinched between two of his bare fingers.

His red-on-black eyes focused on a window of Xavier institution watching the harsh jerky movements of a girl. Her face was flushed, he could tell from here, and she had paced her room for the last twenty minutes. His empathy had reached out to the girl long ago, and was surprised to find the self-loathing bleeding from her. Self-loathing, and loneliness.

Suddenly her Jerky, angry pace across her room stopped. He could see her run a hand through her hair and walk over to her dresser. She pulled out the top drawer and stuck her hand in. Out came what looked like a piece of paper.

The girl, Rogue, slipped off her gloves and let her bare hands caress the paper. She walked to the foot of her bed, and sat down. Her hands still clutching the piece of paper.

Remmy watched with fascination as it seemed whatever she was holding calmed her down. Comforted her almost. Maybe it was a note? Curiosity nipped at him as Rogue fell back onto her bed so that only one hand was holding the card.

She looked so peaceful, even from so far off. Her two-toned hair pooled around her in a way Gambit could only describe as beautiful. His empathy reached out, and he was hit with feelings he had never felt coming from Rogue. Peace. Acceptance. It was rare to come across these emotions from anyone. Especially from Rogue.

Suddenly there was a spark of anger, and of humor? He couldn't be sure, as it was an odd combination. It calmed down just as soon though, bringing her back to that, happy peaceful feeling.

Remmy closed his eyes and relaxed in the feeling he was sharing with her now. The peace was amazing. Curiosity nudged its nose inside of him, what could calm her down like this?

Suddenly there was a flash of hot blinding rage. Remmy all but fell out of the tree from surprise.

He had obviously picked up on someone else's emotions besides Rogue.

Rogue was actually getting up herself, getting 'ready' and shoving the piece of paper back into the drawer. Slight annoyance was coming off of her, mixed with the heavily lingering peace she got from that piece of paper.

She opened the door, and Remmy found it hard to concentrate on Rogue as the person at her door was sending out lots of anger.

It didn't take long, before another person to walk up, he could feel their emotions of sadness rolling off of them and mixing with the Anger and surprise. He could no longer distinguish whose emotions were whose, but was slightly relieved when all of them left Rogue's room.

He gave himself a toothy grin and pulled back his Empathy before swiftly climbing down the tree.

He cast several glances around, and let his empathy spread out largely there was no one on the grounds who could see him when he did what he needed to do.

He darted quickly to the wall of the institute and started scaling it quickly. Doing all of climbing nearly unconsciously. Finally he got to Rogue's window and managed to get it open with one hand as the other tightly gripped one of the jutting out rocks of the institute.

In one swift motion he hopped off of the wall and into the room.

Now, where to leave it?

He nibbled at his lower lip and thought to himself, the mirror was too obvious- he wasn't going for obvious, he was going for sneaky.

He finally decided to put it underneath the covers of her bed. He slipped out a book, one that was about the size of a card and as thick as one of your fingers, and slipped his King of Hearts into it.

Then he slipped both under the covers of her bed.

A job well done. he thought to himself, pleased, and went to the window to leave. Just as he was about to swing out, that biting curiosity came back at him full force.

His demon eyes travelled to the dresser, where she had placed the note. He grimaced to himself, "Dis is an invasion of privacy." he said to himself, "She gonna be so mad if she finds out."

Despite this, the top drawer found itself open, and Remmy found himself pilfering through her underwear and gloves. "Where is it?" he murmured to himself, when finally his hand felt something smooth.

"Jackpot!" he murmured to himself, gently sliding the smooth piece of paper out. How odd he thought while sliding it out, It feels just like a-

And there it was. In front of him. His lady, his Queen of Hearts. The red in his eyes seemed to pulse with intensity as he stared at it. This? This is what had brought her comfort? He couldn't believe it. His heart pounded shakily in his chest, and now he definitely felt as if he was invading her privacy.

Although he thought to himself, casting a glance over to the bed, there is potential here.

He smiled to himself and reached into his pocket pulling out a scrap of paper and an old pen. He leaned over and used the dresser as a stable surface to write They make a good couple, no? -RL

He felt gleeful now, if not a bit guilty, but this would be great. She would come back and find another card, that was from the same deck. This was working out even better than he had planned.

He found the Queen in the book and finally decided to go ahead and pull the book out and put it on the pillow so that she could see his fine handy work. The Queen and the King were smiling up from him, laid on the bed similar to how you would show your hand while playing cards. The bottoms over lapped but the faces still shone through, and below that was a book The meaning of Cards with a note taped to the front.

Now he could leave.

Rogue was exhausted. Her eyes were half lidded as she and Kitty trekked to their room.

It had been an emotional night, but everything had been settled. Rogue and Kurt had promised to give Lance one more chance, but if slipped up they would be the first ones to beat him up. Kitty had promised to be careful, and to be rational when dealing with Lance.

Kitty had revealed that she had made a deal with Lance, no using powers against her or her friends, or they would be over. She said already he was proving himself to her (and to them) because when Kurt had attacked him he had refrained from using his powers at all.

Rogue sighed, running a gloved hand over her face as she opened her door and walked to her bed to collapsed

Wait. What in the name of all that was Holy was on her bed? "Kitty," she said, now instantly awake, "Could you get the lights, I need to change."

Kitty yawned and murmured something, but eventually obliged.

On her bed sat her Queen of Hearts, with a King of Hearts, and a book. On the book was a note Don't they make a cute couple? -RL

Her face got bright red in anger. He had to go through my underwear drawer to get this out! She thought to herself irritably. Though, part of her felt - relieved almost? She shook this off and went to move the cards and the book.

Though the name of the book caught her eye. Card Meanings?

She placed the Queen and the King in her drawer, while she took the book and flipped through the pages, looking for- ah there it was.

King of Hearts- A kind-hearted man. Usually family, but always very reliable. Will never leave.

Remmy walked into the Acolyte apartment, he knew that Magneto had rented it out for several years so that he wouldn't have to pay every month. Sitting on one of the couch sprawled out with food everywhere was none other than Pyro.

Gambit smiled, but at the same time he cringed. The young man had quite the case of ADHD and could never sit still. When he was with a person, the man often jabbered until you wanted to hit him in the face.

Pyro had also developed some sort of odd friendship with Gambit, one that Gambit couldn't really bring himself to sever as he knew he was one of the few friends the guy had. He also had Piotr, and even Piotr (a man who had unwillingly been dragged into a life of crime) couldn't deny the insane pyromaniac friendship.

Keeping this in mind, Pyro's eyes shifted over to Gambit, and lacked they're usual (oh, how would you phrase it?) insanity.

"Oh, hey," he said before turning his eyes back to the TV. Gambit cocked an eye brow.

"Uh- hey Johnny." he said cautiously slipping his keys back into his pockets. "Everything okay?"

Pyro shook his head, "Yeah- Yeah! Why wouldn't everything be okay?!" he ground this out and shoved something into his mouth.

"I dunno mon ami, but you are acting like a girl on her period."

Pyro let out a huff, "That's the problem though. Sheilas! Shelias and there stupid periods! Sheilas, and their stupid! Disgusting! Hormonal! Periods!" he banged his head on the couch with each word he used to describe girls.

"You having girl problems?" Gambit asked skeptically. Usually during times like this he would whip out his Empathy, but as a rule of thumb he never used his Empathy around Johnny if he could help it. He was insane and his quick changing emotions often gave him a form of mental whiplash.

"No," Johnny said in a strangled voice, "Why would you think that? Everthing's good here! It's happy town! I'm having a party!" Remmy saw him shove more food into his mouth.

"uh- okay- well I'm just going to go to my room- now-" he slowly made his way around the couch to go to his room and get some much-needed sleep, when all of the sudden he felt a hand on his.

He looked down and saw Pyro pouting up at him. "I-I really need to - uh- go- uh- sleep." he said trying to squirm his way out of this one.

Pyro's pouting face didn't change. Gambit finally let out a sigh, "Okay, okay. I'll listen." he grumbled.

Pyro sent him a gleeful smile and pulled him onto the couch. "You know- Shelias are the most complicated things-" he said shoving some chocolate in his face. "Especially the, well, the smokin' ones? The ones who are all on fire in the inside and on the outside." his eyes were gleaming with his usual insanity now as he mentioned fire, "I mean- Wanda's totally out of my league-"

Remy froze, "Wait. Johnny. Wanda. As in 'Bucket heads insane daughter' Wanda?"

Johnny nodded sadly, "Yeah. She's the best. She's amazing-" and on he went. For four hours. Four long, hard hours of listening to Pyro pine after a girl, when finally his phone rang.

"I have to take this, Pyro. Just give me a moment." he stepped out of the living room and into the kitchen.

"Thank you God." he said looking up, before flipping his phone open, "Gambit here. What services can I offer y'?"

He suddenly froze, then relaxed, "How much money are we talking here?" he mused. Nodding as he listened to the man on the other line.

"you know I'm not so sure-"

"Gambit!" a high-pitched, Australian accented voice yelled from the living room, followed by sobbing.

"Actually, you know, I think I can take that. When do you need it by?" he nodded already having a pen out writing down details he knew he would forget. "Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well- thank you so much!" he hung up the phone and walked into the living room. Doing his best to put on a sad face.

"Johnny. That was a business partner of mine. I've been called off to do a job. And they need me to leave right now."

Johnny's face puckered, "But, can't you just stay for a little bit longer?"

"NO! I mean, uh, I've got to go now. I'll be back in a few months! See y' soon!" with that he was out the door and running to his motorcycle. Ignoring the insane babbling following not to far behind him.

"But- Gambit! Baby! Don't leave me!"

A/N: Here's chapter two! Thank you so much for reading, and I would love it if you would leave me a review. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and there will be another chapter come this time next week.

For all of you who are curious, this little story will actually consist of fifty-two chapters exactly. No more. No less. I have every single chapter planned out. Including this next one- which is already half-way written out.