Afraid To Love

Midnight Swim

"That's none a your business," she said. "Now get off mah bed."

"Oh, come on, Chere," he said and held out his hand for her. "After trainin' wid Wolverine, Remy tired... An' sore."

"Then go to your own room," she demanded, but there was a hint of a smile on her face.

"Remy like it here just fine," he said and lay out on her bed. She tried not to look but, he was so handsome and sexy lying there. If she had been any normal she would have been in his arms in seconds.

Instead, she remained stubborn and acted annoyed at his behavior. "Fine, ya just have a good ole time in mah bed, and ah'll go elsewhere."

She walked out of the room, but she could hear Remy laughing as she stomped down the hall. She was trying not to let him get to her, but somehow it wasn't working. After all this time, she still had feelings for him and having him in such close vicinity those feelings were just growing stronger.

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Rogue finally made an attempt to return to her room. She feared he was still there, but it turned out that he had left. Kitty was leaving early in the morning to visit her parents for the weekend, so she turned in early so she wouldn't be so tired.

It was a quarter till midnight, and she should have thought about getting some sleep, but for some reason she was restless. What she needed was some exercise, and this was the perfect time to use the pool. Everyone else was asleep or getting there, and she loved the night air.

She quickly changed into the new bathing suit she bought. It was dark aqua green with silver shimmers throughout. It was on the modest side but showed off her figure nicely. With all of her physical training she was well toned and a force to be reckoned with even without her powers.

She grabbed her dark blue beach towel after putting on her beach jacket and headed for the pool.

Everything was quiet, and it would have been nice to have some sort of music, but she didn't want to wake anyone up. So, a nice peaceful swim would have to suffice.

She took off her jacket and laid it on one of the lawn chairs and set her towel down next to it and was about to dive in. That was until she heard a voice.

"Very nice," it said and she looked over to see a shadowy figure approaching, but she knew who that voice was attached to.

"Remy, what are you doin' out here?" she asked. As he came closer it was obvious to see why, since we was in a pair of swimming trunks. She tried not to look, but she had to admit that he looked good.

"Same as you, Chere," he said and only then did she realize how close he was and backed away a few steps. He was barely wearing anything and neither was she.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Ah don't want t'hurt you," she said and grabbed her towel to cover herself. She sat on the lawn chair trying to cover as much skin as possible.

"You ain't gonna hurt me," he said and tried to reach for her, but she flinched. He backed off a little and squatted down to meet her eye level. "Why don' you trust yourself?"

"Ah hurt people in the past... you included," she said with a sad guilty look in her eyes.

"If you talking about the time you were under Mastermind's control dat ain't your fault."

"It don't matter," she said and turned away from him. "Ah still did it."

"When you gonna stop blamin' yourself for dat?" he asked. "I done bad t'ings too, and by choice. Tryin' ta change an' be better. You showed me I could."

She turned back in surprise. "Ah didn't do that."

"Sure you did, an' now's de time you start trust in yourself."

"Ah can't... Ah can't touch anyone," she said and there was a tear in her eye.

"Sure you can... if you want to," he said and moved the towel away. "I know about to trainin' and you been learnin' to control it."

"How do ya know...?"

"Cat told me," he said jokingly.

"Kitty?" He nodded with a smirk. "I'll kill her," she said and he tried to reach for her hand. She pulled away, but he just held up his hand waiting for her to make a move. She was stunned by the gesture and even though she was scared she slowly brought her hand closer to his to where it was barely touching. A slight brush and nothing happened, and then she pressed her palm to his palm. She wore a smile when nothing happened. She didn't want to absorb him; she just wanted to touch him.

He wrapped his fingers around hers and slowly rose to his feet and guided her to rise to her feet. He offered his other hand and held it gently. She didn't feel the pull of her powers, just the natural body heat he radiated.

Both their palms touched and goosebumps went up and down her spine. She felt nervous, but she wasn't even thinking about her dangerous and unique power, but how he was making her feel at that moment.

She wasn't sure how to handle it. She had never felt this way before, not with Scott. That she realized long ago was just a crush. There was Cody but she barely even knew him.

With Remy it was different. The few times she touched his mind there was something besides just the memories that bounded her too him, but something more and that scared her more than anything else.

She took her hands away and crossed her arms. She felt awkward and wanted to get back to the real reason she came out here.

"Ah think ah should take mah swim before it gets too late," she said and approached the edge of the pool.

"How 'bout I join you?" he said and stood a few inches away from her. "A race." There was smugness about his face that almost irritating and the idea of racing and beating him was appealing.

"You're on," she said and dove into the water.

Remy followed seconds later and the race was on. He matched her stroke for stroke, but while Remy was taking this little competition very leisurely, Rogue was working hard to beat him like she had something to prove.

He could have easily won, but his objective was to raise her confidence.

They reached the other end of the pool at the same time, and Rogue was out of breath. She swam hard and her heavy breathing proved it. Remy looked over at her drenched face and liked seeing her two-toned hair slicked back. He came towards her and gently touched bare shoulders. She was so distracted in trying to regain her senses she didn't even notice.

"I guess you won, Chere," he said and came close to her. She used what was left of her strength to hold him back.

"No, it was a draw," she said and lifted herself out of the pool. "It's late, and ah should get some sleep."

She rose to her feet and ran over to get her towel but left her beach jacket behind. She ran off into the building and disappeared.

Remy stared off into space a few minutes after she left his sight. He lifted himself out of the pool and saw her abandoned jacket. He walked over and picked it up bringing it to his nose. It even smelled like her. He would return it after a good wash... well eventually.

He walked off back to his room knowing that he would be dreaming of nothing but her.