FicWad

So far the plan is KurtxKitty and RemyxRogue. What do you think about secondary pairings being LoganxOroro, LancexTabitha and ToddxWanda?

Revolution

Chapter 05: Nostalgia

Rogue stared at Remy and Remy stared at Rogue. He had been asleep for a full ten hours, but he didn't look any less weary; although his weariness now seemed to be due more so to the confusion than to any physical affliction. The white atmosphere of the infirmary at the institute remained very still, until Remy finally spoke with a clearly perceptible hint of sarcasm in his voice. "It's a bit silly to worry about being hurt by a man who can't even move, don't you think?"

He had that same familiar accent, the same spice in his tone, but the worries that were reflected in his eyes were nothing like he was before. He was lost. "Do you remember anything at all?"

"No..." The answer was flat and seemed to leave no room for elaboration, but he soon elaborated anyway. Then there was that same attitude that reassured Rogue more than the nameless young man could ever know. He didn't even remember his own name, but he was still Remy. "Honestly, it's not very encouraging to wake up with no memories and tied to a bed... though it might not have been so bad if I had woken up with you laying, rather than sitting, next to me, cherie."

Rogue felt her face turn red at the obvious implication, though it was said with a very joking tonality to it. "You do remember!" She meant to put some anger, or at least a hint of reproach, into that statement, but she could muster nothing but relief.

"Wait? What?" His face was puzzled again. "You mean we are lovers? Ah well, I'm not complaining, but could you explain to me how I ended up tied up and without the faintest notion of even my name?" The alarm that he was holding back seeped through his voice at his confusion. So he had a sadistic lover who apparently got into fights with him and he had lost this one? Waking up without an identity was one thing, but waking up to find that the identity he couldn't remember was kind of in the crazy side was a whole other story. Just what kind of person was he?

"No!" Rogue exclaimed rather loudly. "There's nothing going on between us... I mean, I suppose I could say we're kind of friends." She corrected after her sudden outburst.

"Well," Remy wasn't sure if he should be relieved or not, but decided in its favor. An insane friend seemed like less of a serious situation than an insane lover. He wondered if the world would start making sense if he had a context to put it into. "I would appreciate it if you'd not mislead me, cherie."

"There you go again." Rogue had confirmed herself that Remy had no memories and Xavier had further established that. The amnesia was expected, but perhaps the use of that word for her hinted that his memories were not permanently lost, just deeply buried. At least she hoped that was the case as it meant he could recover them. Another possibility was that his memories were mostly wiped clean and this was just one of the blurry pieces left behind.

"What do you mean?" Remy asked, growing impatient now.

"You called me cherie, that's what you used to call me before." Rogue reminded.

There was no hint of recollection in his eyes, "it seems fitting, albeit I can't remember ever calling anyone that before, or even my own name." He prompted for an answer.

"Remy LeBeau, also known as Gambit," again Rogue saw no recognition in his face when she spoke those words.

To Remy, his own name was nothing but a jumble of random sounds without meaning. At least it was good to know he had a name, and even a nickname. Now he had to readdress the other big mystery in his life, this peculiar young woman. "You said we were friends, but also mentioned something about me hurting you." She had said us, a plural, who was us? "If we're friends, why would you be worried about that to the point of tying me up?"

Because they didn't always fight on the same side, because he might be working for the enemy... "Because you were brainwashed. I'll call Professor Xavier and he'll do a diagnosis on you."

"Brainwashed..." Remy mused over those words. It was alarming, but at least his situation made a little more sense as to why his friend would keep him tied up. "Who did it?"

"I don't know," Rogue admitted. "We're trying to investigate the situation, but haven't found much yet."

Again the use of plural, but Remy didn't ask about it right away. He assumed that he would in due time find out who that group that this girl kept referencing was, and if they were also supposed to be his friends. Albeit it was difficult to call someone a friend when he couldn't actually remember them. He didn't seem to have much of a choice, though his natural instinct was a tad distrusting, he decided to further investigate and seek out the truth. Then if these people turned out to be trustworthy by his new judgment, then he might stick around and try to recover his old life, whatever that might have been. "What's your name?"

"Rogue," she replied, 'but you can just keep calling me cherie,' she added mentally. The familiarity of the nickname was reassuring.

"Rogue..." Remy repeated. "But I called you cherie you said?" She nodded and he perceived that she preferred the nickname, perhaps because it reminded her of a past he couldn't even begin to decipher. "Alright, cherie, bring in the good doctor."

"Doctor?" He was referring to Xavier, Rogue realized. "The professor isn't a doctor, he's a psychic."

"A psychic?" Did such a thing even exist? Then again, if brainwashing was real, so could be psychics... though maybe his amnesia was due to a more plausible reason, such as getting into some kind of accident and hitting his head. He certainly had a pounding headache, though it was nothing compared to the lost feeling of amnesia.

"Yes," Rogue confirmed, closing her eyes for a moment and calling out to Xavier in her mind. "Professor! Remy's awake and with amnesia! He's still tied up and very confused! Please come run the tests you said you needed!"

The professor's psychic waves caught her voice, she was screaming like Kitty that time when she had only recently joined and Kurt had been hurt. "Calm down," Xavier soothed. Non-psychics tended to under estimate the loudness of a mental scream as it carried no actual sound waves, but it was certainly clear to him. "I'll be right there."

"He's coming," Rogue informed and Remy assumed that she had mentally called for him... if that was even possible. What a strange place he had woken up in.

xoxox xox xoxox

Meanwhile, in hopes of finding more information about the current situation, Kitty went to talk to Lance. Perhaps he had learned something from Pietro and knew if Magneto was somehow involved. On his way to meet Amanda at a cafe, Kurt passed Kitty from the other side of the street, but she didn't see him. He stopped and watched unnoticed by her as she walked up the steps of the Brotherhood's porch and rang the doorbell, rocking back and forth on her feet as she waited for someone to answer. The door was opened by Pietro, who gave Kitty a curious look and before she had the chance to speak, he called out, "Lance! Your girlfriend is here!" Which was an inaccurate misconception.

At that moment, Kurt teleported away. He didn't hear Kitty denying being Lance's girlfriend and claiming that they were only friends. The reason why he didn't simply teleport near the cafe in the first place was because he wanted time to think as he walked the distance there. The serious tone that Amanda took with him on the phone when she said they needed to talk gave him a foreboding feeling that sent chills down his spine. Yet the scene Kurt saw just now, which he interpreted as Kitty meeting Lance for a date haunted him all the more. He felt jealous, even if he told himself he didn't have the right to be. Yet he couldn't help it.

"Kurt," Amanda's voice broke Kurt out of his thoughts. He had gone to her in a daze without even realizing he had reached his initially intended destination. She was standing in front of an alley, peeking in and it looked like fortunately, no one had seen him teleport between the two buildings, save for Amanda who expected him to pop out in such a place.

He gave her a weak smile and followed her out of the alley and into the cafe that occupied the building to the right. It was a quiet and calm place that was never too crowded due to its rather expensive prices and hot beverages that couldn't compete with the ice-cream parlor down the street. Even so, Amanda loved that place with its calm quiet atmosphere and elegant Victorian decorations. They sat at a table in a corner, far from the entrance and windows.

The waiter brought over some menus with a look on his face that seemed to wonder why anyone would choose to sit there of all places. It was the darkest corner of the cafe, secluded from everything else. Then again... the x geeks could be a tad odd at times, never mind that he was stranger. "What can I get you, yo?"

Kurt and Amanda had been so focused on their own thoughts that they didn't even notice who the waiter was until he spoke. "Toad?" Kurt blinked in surprise. "How in the world did you manage to get a job here?"

Todd smiled a mouthful of yellowed teeth. He was dressed in a Victorian style tuxedo, as it was required for all the cafe's waiters to wear. His hair was smoothed back neatly with more hair gel than anyone who feared their hair would turn into a helmet would have the sense to wear. The excess gel gave his hair a shiny quality that might have looked elegant from afar, but looked very greasy at close range. "I was just trying to earn some money. Wanda's been in a bad mood because of the heat and I wanted to take her out for ice-cream. I want to be able to buy her all the ice-cream she wants!"

"That explains why you would apply," Kurt nodded curiously, "but not why they hired you." There was no malice or reproach in his voice, only surprise.

"This place is closing, yo," Amanda frowned when Todd revealed the news in a quiet whisper. "When the staff heard they all went to get new jobs, since this place will be gone in a week anyway. The owner expects some miraculous recovery and was hiring anyone he could to replace the old staff and make up for a year's losses in a week. The losses have been especially hard since summer started, so I really don't think Mr. Manager's dream will come true. Even so, having a job for a week is better than having no job at all."

Amanda sighed, the fact that her favorite cafe was closing only added to the melancholic cloud that hung over her head. "I guess I'll have my last French vanilla cappuccino..."

Todd jotted down the order in his little notepad with particularly poor grammar. Neither he nor Kurt understood how Amanda could even think about a cappuccino now. "I will bring it right away, madam. What is your order, sir?" Todd tried to mimic the tone he was taught to address customers, though quite frankly, he looked rather silly with his nose turned upwards and his eyes half lidded as if attempting to resemble an aloof aristocrat.

"Do you have anything cold to drink?" Kurt almost begged. He knew that the sight of Amanda's cappuccino would make him sweat if he didn't distract himself with a cold drink.

"I'm afraid not, yo, I mean sir," Todd replied, slipping over his silly overly formal speech and momentarily into his usual habit. Kurt sighted and Todd actually took pity on him. "I'm not supposed to do this, but I'll try to talk the cook into getting some ice from the back fridge and pour some syrup on it, then it's kind of like shaved ice!" It was exactly like shaved ice actually, although it was certainly not in the official menu.

"Thank you," Kurt sincerely voiced.

Todd gave a nod and grinned, then caught himself and once again turned his face into a serious and aloof aristocratic mask. "I will bring your refreshments right away, madam and sir." He bowed slightly and, once again forgetting his hasty waiter training, he hopped away like a frog. He jumped over the bar counter where an old man with a big white mustache, presumably the owner and manager, reprimanded him. With a hasty, "sorry dude!" Todd straitened up and walked into the kitchen behind the rows of bottles that he, and anyone else under the age of twenty-one, was banned from touching... but that wouldn't stop him from snatching a bottle or two on his way out after work.

To be Continued

The last two chapters have been rather calm, but there is some action in the horizon. There's something dangerous lurking in the shadows that is yet to be discovered...