Rescue me (X-Men: Evolution - ROMY)

Epilogue

For so long her gloves had felt like a prison and she had wished for a day when she might no longer need them. She felt a little foolish wearing them now that she didn't need them, but Remy had assured her that it wasn't cowardice; they only came to her wrist after all, so her arms were uncovered. Baby steps, he called it, and somehow managed to make it sound reassuring, not condescending.

"I pick out that killer outfit for you and you're honestly going to make me wear this?" Remy asked again.

Rogue turned to look at him and couldn't help the smile that formed on her lips.

"You did agree that you would wear anything I picked out for you," she reminded him. "And it is a tuxedo."

"From the 1970s!"

In duck egg blue with darker blue piping down the side of the pants, it was indeed a throwback from a decade that fashion forgot. In fact the hideousness of the suit was only topped by the ruffled, off white dress shirt he was wearing, with matching duck egg blue bow tie.

It was so awful that not even his sexy eyes and five o'clock shadow could save his image.

"I'm gonna be a laughing stock!" he said, shaking his head in despair.

Rogue laughed. "Then maybe next time you'll let me chose my own clothes."

"But you love that dress!"

"Yes I do, but you know that you have been foisting clothes on me ever since we got to New Orleans. You can suggest things, swamp rat, but remember this the next time you try and force something on me."

"Chère!" Remy gave her the puppy dog eyes. "Mon amour, have pity on a lowly Cajun?""

Rogue tried to resist but she was a slave to the puppy dog eyes.

"All right, fine, you can change after an hour, and that's my final offer."

Remy smiled. "I think I can last an hour."

"An hour after the party starts, that is."

His face dropped but Rogue disappeared next door, through the living room and into Sarah's room, before he could try any more underhand tactics.

"How's it going in here?" Rogue asked.

Kitty and Sarah turned to her, both smiling.

"Great," Kitty said. "I'm nearly finished."

Rogue eyed Sarah's party dress that was hanging outside the wardrobe.

"You better get a move on yourself, Kitty, party starts in half an hour."

"I know. Can you help her with the dress while I go and change?"

"Sure thing."

Now that Sarah had an image inducer she had freely agreed to go shopping with Kitty for her dress, though after trying on over a dozen different ones, Sarah was beginning to see why Rogue avoided going to the mall with Kitty like the plague.

"Can I use my image inducer tonight?" Sarah asked.

"Sorry, honey, tonight is come as you are."

Sarah knew that the inducer was only for use outside of the mansion but it seemed that she enjoyed looking normal so much that she wanted to use it all the time. While the inducer was good for blending in while in public, both Remy and Rogue had agreed that it's use should be banned in the house since they both knew that she had to come to terms with who she was. They hoped that one day, she could feel comfortable enough to go out without the image inducer, although that had just as much to do with public acceptance as it did Sarah's self confidence.