Summary: Rogue's conscience no longer coincides with the Brotherhood's ideals, so it's time to swallow her pride and go home. Meanwhile, Wolverine begrudgingly tries to recruit the slippery Gambit. Romy-flavoured oneshot.

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men nor am I affiliated with Marvel in any way.

Author's Notes: I have been itching to write a "Wolverine & The X-men" fic since I started watching the show over a month ago. But, I like to finish what I start before moving on, so this idea was put on the back burner with the rest of my ideas. Then suddenly when I finished the previous fic I was working on, it shoved its way to the front of my mind. This is also my very first oneshot. It feels strange not to write an epic!

As per usual: I write with minimal accents, we all know our leads have them, so I feel it's unnecessary. The power of imagination works better than all my misspelled words and apostrophes.

Update: This shot was written after the first few episodes aired, so for obvious reasons, it does not follow canon.

She sat shame faced across from the man she considered to be her only family. She hadn't even touched her latte. Logan, on the other hand, sipped his straight, black coffee. He had agreed to meet with her and for that she was grateful. Pride, however, kept her from sucking up to the man.

Yeah, she'd screwed up and made a wrong choice, but so had he. Wolverine had made plenty of mistakes in his life. To put it simply, that's why he had showed up to meet her at this coffee house in the first place. If Logan thought they were like family, he sure as hell never acted like it. She once liked to believe that he felt the way she did, but those days were gone. As bitter as her feelings were towards him, his choice was better than her current alternative.

She had joined the Brotherhood for various reasons: anger, revenge, contempt and hope. In the end, she knew what she was doing was wrong. Once she had started down that path it became harder and harder to tell Domino 'No'. It wasn't until last week, when the nightmares began that she knew she had to leave. Terrorist acts, although capable of sending very powerful messages and voicing anger, were not the most morally sound things to do. Voices that weren't hers swirled through her head, coming alive while her conscious self slept. She would wake up screaming in cold sweats, the feeling of utter loss of control slowly eating her alive. She was absorbing too many people too frequently, and she couldn't handle it anymore. She packed her bags and left the Brotherhood without a single word to anyone.

Logan sat patiently, sipping his coffee, waiting for her to start talking. When Rogue dared to meet his eyes, she was mildly surprised to see no judgment there. She had set him and the X-men up for a fall and he held nothing against her. The word 'family' echoed through her brain. Logan didn't really think that way though, did he?

"I was wrong," she finally said to the man across from her.

He shifted in his seat.

"And what do you plan on doing about that, Rogue?" he asked gruffly. He wasn't angry, he just always sounded like that.

She knew the answer to this one.

"Learn from it, I guess." Her voice was a little more timid than she'd planned.

He nodded slightly and took another sip of coffee.

"I just wanted to—" She sighed. "I don't know, at the time it didn't seem that bad, y'know?"

"Yeah, I know."

"And then things kinda spiraled out of control and…and…well, here I am." She glanced away, hugging her warm cup tightly in her hands. "I know what I did was wrong, Logan, and I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too, kid," Logan answered reaching a rough hand across the table and awkwardly clasping hers with it. "I know I wasn't ever there when you needed me most and I know you're angry, but you can always come home. If you really mean this, the door is always open."

She smiled wryly. "Just like that?"

"I'm not saying it'll be easy. You've got a lot of trust to earn back. Starting with me."

"Thank you, Logan." Rogue answered, blinking back a tear. She hoped he didn't see.

"That's what family's for, kid."

Her heart flip flopped excitedly.

Family.

"I'll check out of my hotel room and head back to the mansion later on today."

"I'll have your room ready for you."

Rogue felt a huge weight lift from her shoulders. For the first time in weeks she felt okay. She threw a couple dollars on the table for her latte and gave Logan a grateful smile before she headed out the door to reclaim her life.

Remy had never been one for showing up on time. He showed up when it was most opportune for him. The look on Wolverine's face when he met him at the mansion's gate said that maybe his timing wasn't so opportune this time. Still, he had shown up to humour the short, angry man and listen to his recruitment offer. If anything, at least he'd come away from the evening with a good laugh.

Joining the X-men, it was almost as ridiculous in his head as it was coming from Wolverine's mouth when he'd spoken to him on the phone. Gambit had to admit, Wolverine went through a lot of trouble to track him down, which was initially why he was showing up in the first place. They weren't exactly on amicable terms.

"Look Cajun, here's the deal; I don't like you and you don't like me—"

"Who said I didn't like you?" Gambit interrupted.

Wolverine stared blankly at him for a moment. "You left me for dead with mutant hunting robots in a laboratory."

Gambit only shrugged, smiling pleasantly. "And see? You're fine, non?"

"Alright, I don't like you, but my associates seem to disagree with me. They think we could use a man of your…talents on the team."

"For how long?" Gambit asked, just a little intrigued.

"Permanent position."

Gambit let out a rich laugh.

This really was the most ridiculous offer he'd ever been made. He was no more X-man material than the MRD was. The idea of him running around with these nancy do-gooders was absolutely hysterical.

"Sorry, mon ami, there is absolutely no way in hell that I would ever even possibly consider—" The rest of Gambit's sentence caught in his throat as the setting sun illuminated a shapely, feminine figure walking towards him.

In every sense of the word, she was beautiful. Gambit couldn't take his eyes off of the lovely vision that had now stopped just beside him. She held a suitcase in her gloved hand.

"Your room's ready, Rogue." Logan greeted the vision with a familiar nod.

"Thanks, Logan," she answered in a melt in your mouth, southern accent.

She smiled and Gambit fell further. She brushed past him slightly and walked towards the mansion with seductive hips swaying back and forth. He couldn't peel his eyes away from that backside. It perfectly matched the front.

Behind him, Wolverine cleared his throat loudly in annoyance. He suddenly seemed more eager than before to get rid of him.

"You were saying?" Wolverine growled impatiently.

Gambit smiled brightly.

"Ah, yes! As I was saying; there is absolutely no way I could ever possibly consider refusing such an offer. I will gladly join the ranks of your X-men." As an afterthought he added, "I think I'll take the room next to hers."

He moved past Wolverine and followed after his perfect vision of beauty to the mansion door.

"You're room will be far from hers!" Wolverine snarled back protectively.

"No matter, I like exercise," Remy called back before catching up to the goddess and gallantly taking her suitcase for her.

Turned out he did show up at the most opportune time.

End