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Chapter Text

It had been two hours. Two hours since the fight had started. And neither of the teams was ready to give up. The professor had been left in the mansion and was looking over everything using Cerebro. Scott and Jean were going against Gambit who, even though their powers seemed to be stronger, was managing to avoid getting hit. Especially since they found out that Jean’s telepathy didn’t work on him. Logan and Hank were fighting Creed and the fight resembled three wild animals trying to kill each other, more than anything. Angel and Storm had taken on Pyro, who was doing his best to throw them out of the sky. Kitty, Rogue and Kurt were fighting Colossus. That fight was mostly based on Rogue getting in a punch and then being taken out of harm's way by either Kurt or Kitty. Magneto was watching everything from a distance. He had to admit that his Acolytes were stronger than he expected. Every team was on their own roof, making the fights even more dangerous. Then Creed managed to knock Hank and Logan backwards so that they both flew into the wall. Magneto raised his hand and both ferals got pinned to the wall with metal bars. Creed smirked and then jumped over to Gambit’s roof.

“Let’s have some fun!”

He jumped onto Jean and managed to knock her to the ground. Her head hit the hard roof and she blacked out. Creed pulled her up by the neck and went over to the edge of the building. At the same moment Kurt teleported wrong and got hit in the head with Colossus metal hand. Meanwhile both Remy and Scott had frozen in their spots. Creed smirked.

“Do you think she will wake up before she hits the ground?”

Remy took a step forward.

“Don’t do this Creed. We’re not supposed to kill.”

The feral’s eyebrows shot up.

“Oh yeah? And who told you that?”

And he let go of Jean. Remy ran past him and jumped off the roof without stopping to think. He flew through the air, catching up to her quickly. When he caught up to her, he put his arm around her waist. Then he pulled his staff out, charged it and threw it towards the ground. The staff hit the ground and exploded. The blast made the two falling mutants almost stop in the air. Then they started to fall again but this time they were much closer to the ground and didn’t manage to pick up the same speed before they crashed onto the pavement. Remy had managed to flip them around in the last second so that he was the one that hit the ground and Jean landed on top of him. The hit knocked him out and they both stilled. Magneto was furious. How did that cajun dare to help the X-Men? He made a movement and the three Acolytes stepped out into the air. Magneto grabbed the metal that was in their boots and levitated them over to his own roof. Logan, who had managed to cut through the ordinary metal, freed Hank and they both rushed over to the fire escape stairs. On the other roof Scott did the same. Ororo and Angel, not having to protect themselves from Pyro’s fire, flew down to the two unconscious mutants. Kitty and Rogue were doing their best to see if Kurt was really alright. He rolled his eyes, grabbed them both and teleported down onto the street. This way they arrived there first. Storm and Angel were there a second later, followed by Logan and Hank. Scott came down a few seconds later. He gently lifted Jean off of Gambit and laid her down on the ground. Hank moved down to see over her. A few seconds later he nodded.

“She’s alright. She blacked out when she hit her head up there but she was not harmed in the fall. Most likely thanks to him.”

He turned to the unconscious man. After a quick check he sighed.

“He has a big gash on the back of his head, most probably from when he hit the ground. I’m going to guess that he has some cracked ribs from when Jean landed on him. But I can’t really see or feel too much because of his armour. Miraculously, nothing else seems to be broken. He is a real quick thinker. If he hadn’t made that blast, they would have been killed by that fall. Or at least, he would have. Jean would most probably have survived because of falling on top of him and him taking the biggest hit.”

Just then, Jean groaned. Scott and Storm helped her sit up.

“What happened?”

She looked over to Scott. But the one that answered was Storm.

“Sabretooth knocked you out. And threw you from the roof. Gambit jumped off after you, created an explosion to cushion your fall and then flipped you around so that you were on top of him and he took the worst hit onto himself.”

Jean’s eyes widened. She slowly stood up with Storm’s help and went over to the cajun.

“But why?”

Logan, who had heard everything that had been said on that roof thanks to his enhanced hearing, answered slowly:

“I’m not sure, but it seemed that he wasn’t told all the detail of following Magneto when he joined them. He tried to talk Creed out of throwing you down.”

Rogue went a bit closer.

“What are we going to do with him?”

Logan and Ororo glanced over to each other.

“We’ll have to take him with us. Magneto will kill him for helping us. And I would feel awful if I just left him here like this.”

Jean nodded.

“I agree with Ororo. We can’t just leave him here. Let’s take him back to the mansion. The professor can decide what to do from there.”

Logan moved down and picked the cajun up. He looked at him with surprise.

“What the…?”

He quickly went over to Scott and stretched the man over to him. Scott took a step back.

“Are you crazy?! I can’t carry a full grown man!”

Logan growled in frustration.

“Just take him. I’ll catch him if you let go. I just need to see if it’s because of my strength or if I’m correct.”

Scott frowned but slowly slipped his arms under Remy’s back and knees. Logan let go of the boy and Cyclops gasped.

“Damn. He is almost lighter than Jean.”

Logan took the cajun back into his arms and gave a soft growl.

“Once we get him back to the mansion, we need to get him out of the coat, armour and that funny face thing he wears. And Hank needs to give him a full examination.”

They nodded and started to walk to where they had left the Blackbird. Just as they were going inside, the cajun woke up. Logan put him down on the floor and the door closed. Remy looked around with his odd eyes. Then the lights fired up and he groaned while shielding his eyes. Hank quickly pushed the right buttons and the lights dimmed.

“You can look now. I turned the lights down.”

The boy looked around.

“So Remy is a prisoner now.”

Jean shook her head and went closer to him, only for him to take a step back. Unfortunately that made him back straight into Logan. He jumped away which seemed to irritate his ribs because he quickly put a hand over them. Ororo put her hands in the air and went a bit closer to him. He looked a bit mistrustful but let her come closer.

“Take it easy Gambit. We won’t hurt you. We would actually like to thank you for saving Jean.”

He glanced over to the redhead and nodded.

“Creed went too far. Even by his standards.”

Logan growled. That made the cajun take a small step back but the feral didn’t care about that.

“His standards? You clearly don’t know what Creed is capable of. What he has done. This wouldn’t be his first kill. And certainly not his last. Why do you think Magneto hired him. He needs someone who won’t hesitate if someone needs to get eliminated. Face the facts kid. Creed is not who you think he is.”

Remy looked at them. He was still not understanding. Was he a prisoner? And if so, why didn’t he have a collar on? And if he wasn’t a prisoner, what was he? Kitty smiled at him and said with a pretty friendly voice:

“I’m Kitty Pryde. They call me Shadowcat.”

The cajun was watching her for a long moment before he answered slowly:

“My name’s Remy. Remy LeBeau. They call me Gambit, but you most probably already know that.”

She nodded and then pointed towards one of the seats.

“You should sit down. You hit the ground pretty hard.”

He looked around again.

“Am I a prisoner?”

Hank shook his head.

“No. Right now, you are a hurt mutant. And very high on Magneto’s enemy list. We couldn’t leave you there.”

The cajun shrugged.

“Remy can take care of himself. He’s done it in the past.”

Some of the X-Men were a bit surprised at the sudden change to third person. Jean sighed and went over to the pilot’s seat.

“Come on Hank. Let’s get him up in the air.”

Logan grunted and went over to a seat. He put a belt on and closed his eyes. Kitty smiled seeing Remy’s confused face.

“Logan hates flying. That’s Logan by the way. The woman you saved is Jean Grey. That is Hank McCoy, also known as Beast. The teleporter is called Nightcrawler. His name is Kurt. Kurt Wagner. The winged one is Warren Worthington. Angel. The girl next to Logan is called Rogue. Just Rogue. That is Ororo Munroe. Also known as Storm. And our fearless team leader Scott Summers. Cyclops.”

She listed them off quickly, pointing at the right people in the right order. Storm smiled.

“I really meant what I said. We won’t hurt you Remy.”  

He looked from her to Kitty who was still smiling. Then he nodded.

“Remy will go with you.”

Kitty’s smile widened. She sat down and pointed the seat next to her. After slight hesitation, Remy sat down. That was when Scott came forward.

“I wanted to thank you. For saving Jean.”

Remy just nodded. He still didn’t really believe that he wasn’t a prisoner. But the X-Men were right. He couldn’t go back to Magneto. Not after what had happened.

Chapter Text

Remy was lost in his thoughts. Kitty was still talking, telling him about literally everything but he had stopped listening some time earlier. He was trying to figure out what they would do with him. He hadn’t been hit, but that part belonged more to his childhood. He doubted any of these people would manage to beat him up like that. Maybe the feral. But he didn’t come across as that kind of man. There was also that professor. Magneto had warned him about the man. Said that he was the strongest telepath alive and that he could get into anyone’s mind. And even though Remy was really certain that the walls around his brain were strong, he didn’t want to try his luck. Which meant that he would have to try to get away from them before he met the telepath.

“You aren’t listening.”

Kitty’s accusing voice tore through his thoughts. Remy smiled softly.

“I’m sorry, petite. I was thinking about a girl.”

That always worked. Even this time. Kitty’s eyes widened and she blushed a bit. And then…

“Liar.”

Everyone turned to the white haired woman. Remy raised his eyebrows.

“What do you mean?”

Storm tilted her head.

“You’re good. I have to admit it. You could fool anyone. But as it is, I’ve dealt with thieves before. I know when people lie.”

The cajun’s head lowered. He readied himself for screaming. Maybe she would even hit him. She was a mutant after all. She was most probably much stronger than any ordinary women. He waited but nothing happened. When he looked up again, everyone was staring at him. Jean slowly stood up and went over to him. So it would be the telepath after all.

“We won’t hurt you Remy.”

Her soft voice surprised him. He frowned and glanced around, letting his power stretch out a bit. No one felt angry. Kitty, Rogue and Kurt were surprised. Jean, Scott and Ororo were sad. Warren seemed to be confused. Hank was sad and angry, but not in the bad way. Logan’s emotions were all over the place. Remy would have gotten overwhelmed if he hadn’t spent so much time with Creed. He knew that ferals felt more raw feelings. And it was actually pretty nice sometimes. He hadn’t needed to go out and dance or drink to get his emotional high. He simply needed to spend an hour with Creed and he would have enough for the next week. That was another reason to why he never left them. He was addicted and couldn’t simply leave the feral’s side. Suddenly Logan growled softly.

“Stop staring, cajun. I feel as if I have something on my face.”

“If I’m not a prisoner, then what am I?”

He addressed the feral since he figured that he would be the one that wouldn’t try to baby him. Logan shrugged.

“No idea. You’re not a prisoner. You can leave whenever you want, but I would advise you not to try to jump from the plane. And honestly, I would be calmer if you came with us to the mansion. Let Chuck talk to you. See what he says.”

Before he could stop himself, he said quietly:

“Magneto warned me that Xavier was a dangerous man.”

Logan snorted.

“Yeah. I bet he did. Look cajun, Chuck will not hurt you. He won’t try to get into your head against your will. I understand if you are worried about that because I was that too when I first arrived. But Chuck would never invade anyone’s mind without their permission.”

Remy didn’t believe that. He couldn’t. There were no ‘good’ telepaths. No one that could control other people’s minds could be classed as good. His thoughts must’ve showed on his face because Logan slowly took the belt off and went over to the cajun. He sat down next to him and quickly buckled the belt again. Remy smiled when he noticed that the feral looked a little green.

“Shut up. It’s not funny.”

Remy’s smile widened for a second. Then he looked serious again.

“I don’t trust you.”

Logan raised one eyebrow.

“You do. Not the others. But me, you trust.”

The cajun frowned.

“What makes you think that?”

“I’m a feral. You know how to deal with ferals. That’s what makes me think that you trust me. You’re also an empath. You looked a bit high when I was struck with a few emotions. You are obviously more powerful than you want us to believe. Chuck and Jeannie get headaches when they read my mind. And we had one empath at the school who fainted every time I was close to her. So don’t try to lie about yourself because we are not stupid.”

Remy was shocked. The fact that he was an empath was his secret. Not even Magneto knew. The explosions were obvious. It was hard to hide. But empathy was not visible. He had managed to hide it from everyone. Now it was out there. They would use him. He knew that. Powerful mutants always used others. He had seen it before. Jean gave him a small smile and then rushed back to the pilot’s seat to help Hank land. The basketball field opened and the Blackbird sunk down to the landing hangar. The roof closed over them and Remy almost swore. Now he would have to sneak through the whole mansion and avoid the telepath to get out. Because, even though Logan had said that it was fine, he didn’t want to stay in the mansion any longer than he had. He stood up and hissed when his ribs protested against the movement. Yeah, he had to remember that too. Ororo, Rogue, Angel and Kurt were the first ones off the plane. Kitty hesitated but then Jean grabbed her arm and they stepped out. Hank and Logan looked at Remy. So they were going to be his guards now. He figured that it was clever. There was no way he would be able to get away from two ferals. He slowly went out and noticed immediately a man in a wheelchair. He instinctively strengthened the walls around his brain but was surprised when he didn’t feel any pressure on them. So no mind controlling yet. Hank passed him and went over to the man. Logan stopped next to the frozen cajun.

“He won’t do anything. Just give him a chance.”

Remy almost snorted. A chance. How much he would give to get a chance to go back to New Orleans. How much he would give to get a chance to get a home.

“Let’s go.”  

Logan started to walk, giving the cajun the option of either following or going back into the plane. He weighed both options. And then suddenly, Xavier spoke up.

“Welcome to the institute Remy.”

He slowly stepped out of the plane and went over to the professor. He knew he should say something but couldn’t. Not after everything Magneto had told him about the telepath.

“I have to say that I’m surprised to see one of the Acolytes here. May I ask why you are here?”

Remy’s eyebrows shot up.

“As if you couldn’t see it yourself.”

Logan sighed.

“I told you cajun. Chuck won’t do it. He’s not like that.”

Remy noticed annoyance coming from Xavier.

“I asked you not to call me that Logan. My name is Charles.”

The cajun tensed up. Now he would see the truth. He waited for the man to start screaming. To throw the feral across the room. To hurt him. But nothing like that happened. Logan just smirked and Xavier rolled his eyes.

“Whatever. As I said, it’s nice to meet you Remy. But what did you mean?”

Before he managed to answer, Logan started to talk again.

“He thinks you’ll force yourself into his brain and control him that way.”

Xavier looked almost offended but didn’t manage to say anything because Logan continued.

“As to why he is here. Creed threw Red from the roof. Mags had me and Hank pinned to a wall. Storm and Angel were busy with Pyro. Remy jumped after her. He saved her life and managed to not get himself killed in the process. He was knocked out and we decided that we couldn’t leave him there. So we took him back here.”

The telepath frowned.

“Why do you think that I will get into your head, Remy?”

That question almost made Remy laugh. But seeing the seriousness in the man’s eyes, he answered with a simple sentence.

“That’s what he told me you’d do.”

Xavier closed his eyes.

“Erik. Please Remy, do not believe everything Erik says. He can fool people very easily. I would never just go into someone’s mind and control them unless someone’s life depended on it. And I would be very happy if you would stay here for some time.”

Erik. So that was Magneto’s real name. That was when Logan quickly stepped forward again.

“Oh, he is staying. He’s going to explain a few things to us before he leaves. One of them being why he weighs less than Red.”

Remy’s eyes widened.

“Merde.”

Chapter Text

The X-Men all stared at Remy. Charles sighed.

“Why don’t we all just go to the kitchen and eat something while we talk things through. You all must be hungry after the fight.”

Jean smirked.

“Logan sure is.”

The feral growled.

“If you like my mind so much why don’t you take a look at this.”

Suddenly Jean became red as a tomato and said with a shocked voice:

“Logan!”

He smirked and turned to Remy.

“Come on cajun. Let’s go get some food in you. You really need it.”

Remy froze. He didn’t want to eat. He wasn’t hungry. At least that’s what he tried to tell himself. But his body betrayed him. As soon as he heard the word ‘food’, his stomach growled. But still, he shook his head.

“I’m not hungry.”

Logan sighed.

“Don’t give me that crap LeBeau. Take that coat, armor and face thing off and then I maybe will believe that you are not hungry.”

Everything hurt. His whole body screamed for food, now that he was thinking about it, but he couldn’t give in. He couldn’t give up that little part of control he still had. Especially now that he was a prisoner. Jean slowly went over to him.

“Remy. Don’t do this to yourself. Please.”

She took his hand.

“Come on. Let’s go.”

He hesitated. He couldn’t trust her. That much he knew. But a small part of him wanted to trust her. Wanted to be able to trust someone. Be sure that he could turn his back to a person and not be afraid that they would stab him. Maybe this was the chance he had been waiting for. And he had to admit that it was nice to finally be touched by someone who didn’t try to hurt him. He nodded and followed Jean out of the room. He heard the two ferals walking behind them and relaxed a bit. He couldn’t explain it but he trusted ferals. Maybe because they had such raw emotions. Maybe because it was easy to predict what they were going to do. Either way, he felt calmer with them close to him. Jean led him to a big medical bay and that was when he stopped. Experiments. So that was their motive. He took a step back and walked straight into Logan. The feral rolled his eyes.

“No experiments, Gumbo. It’s a medical room. For healing.”

Remy glanced over to Hank who had gone into the room and started to put the computers on. The blue doctor was acting calm. Logan pushed Remy a bit further into the room and closed the door.

“Alright. Take it off and get on one of the beds.”

Remy felt fear. He couldn’t do that. Quickly he was trying to come up with something.

“Didn’t you say something about food?”

Logan growled.

“Yes I did. But since Red thinks that it would be better for you to get checked first, then I’m not going to go against her.”

Remy felt around and noticed a strong connection between the feral and the telepath. It wasn’t love but it was strong. He looked from Logan to Jean. Maybe he should try with them. Just one last time. Give himself one more chance. Hank was still going around the tables and pulling things out. Slowly, Remy took his coat off and put it on a chair. He reached to the sides and untied his armor. To everyone else, the straps holding it together would be an enigma. Under his fingers it opened easily. He slowly pulled the armor off and put it on the floor. That left him in just a grey t-shirt. It was tight, so that it would fit nicely under the armor, and Jean gasped when she noticed how his ribs were clearly visible through the fabric. Remy then lifted his hands up to his face and pulled the facepiece off. His shoulder long hair fell out and framed his face. He was thin. Too thin. Hank seemed to be shocked but collected himself a second later. He pointed to one of the beds and Remy sat down there. Hank rolled a small table over to the bed. On it he had a few small vials, a syringe and some papers. He lifted the syringe and Remy moved away. Hank smiled softly. He understood that the cajun thought that he would experiment on him. It was sad that the young man had clearly been through so much in his life. He needed him to calm down and let him do the examination.

“It’s alright Remy. I’m just going to draw some blood. Nothing more. I promise.”

Remy felt disgusted with himself. How weak was he? They would soon get tired of him and stop being so nice. He put his arm out but as soon as the needle was close to it, he dragged it back.

“I’m sorry.”

Hank shook his head.

“It’s alright.”

Then he got a brilliant idea.

“Remy. Have you ever drawn blood from yourself with a syringe?”

Remy nodded. He remembered that time when Sinister had told him to do it because he was too busy and he needed the blood for testing. Hank smiled and handed the syringe over to the cajun. Remy, understanding what the doctor wanted, took it and quickly drew the blood. He handed it back to Hank who secured it on a tray and turned back to him.

“Alright. Lay down now. I want to make sure that you don’t have anything broken.”

That was easier to do. He laid down and relaxed. His ribs were still hurting a bit but he doubted that anything was broken. Hank moved over to him and put his hands on the cajun’s chest. He started to slowly feel along the ribs. When he was done, Remy slowly sat up again.

“Nothing is broken. You were extremely lucky. Lay down on your front now. I want to see how your back looks after that hit you got.”

Remy did as he was told. He figured that it would be the easiest thing to do. Especially since Hank was very gentle and careful. The doctor slowly pulled the shirt up and almost gasped when he noticed the big bruises on the cajun’s back. They stretched from his lower back and all the way to his neck.

“Stay here. I’ll get some cream. I’ve made it myself and it works against bruises. Scott uses it all the time since he always manages to walk into things when he is on his night rounds.”

He walked over to the cabinet and pulled a small tube of cream.

“I’m going to put it on now. It may be a bit cold but it should help.”

Remy laid still. He wasn’t sure about this but he wasn’t stupid enough to go against the feral. Especially now that he didn’t have his armor on. Hank gently started to spread the cream on Remy’s back. It took a few minutes because of all the places that were bruised up. Hank glanced over to Logan and smiled.

“You should take example from Remy.”

The feral rolled his eyes.

“My healing factor deals with things. I don’t need you poking me everywhere to see if I’m alright.”

Remy smiled softly. These two seemed to be good friends.

“Okey. Sit up but keep the shirt up. I’m going to wrap bandages around your chest and lower back so that you won’t get the cream on your shirt.”

He pulled bandages out and started to wrap them around Remy’s chest. When he was done, he helped the cajun pull his shirt down. Jean smiled and went over to them. She sat down on the bed next to Remy and turned to Hank.

“You need something else Hank? Or do you think we could go to the kitchen and eat?”

Hank hesitated.

“Well, I do have a few questions but…”

Remy understood immediately. They didn’t think he would be honest. And to be honest, he didn’t think he COULD be honest. Not after knowing them for so short time. But then he realized that he needed to tell the truth. Because they were not bad. Because they tried.

“It’s alright. I won’t lie.”

Hank looked him in the eyes and nodded.

“Alright. Let’s start now then, so that you can go eat later. First of all, let’s fill out the personal info so that I can put it into the medical register I have. Your full name?”

“Remy Etienne LeBeau.”

Hank quickly wrote it down.

“How old are you?”

Remy frowned. He wasn’t sure himself.

“I think I’m 24. Give or take two years. I didn’t really keep track on how long I was on the streets before I was taken in.”

Jean and Logan exchanged glances but no one said anything.

“Closest relative that I can contact in case something happens?”

“Jean-Luc LeBeau. Mon pere.”

“Do you have any allergies?”

Remy shook his head.

“Any medical conditions I should know about? Diabetes, asthma, epilepsy?”

The cajun had to think it through. He had never been tested for any of those but on the other side, Sinister wouldn’t experiment on him if he was sick.

“Non. No that I know of. My eyes are very light sensitive though. And I can see in the dark.”

Hank smiled. He was very happy that the young man had decided to be honest to them. But he now had to take something up that he didn’t think the cajun would like to talk about.

“How long have you been starving yourself?”

Remy froze. A few seconds later, he felt Jean put a hand on his shoulder and squeeze it. He took a deep breath.

“A few months.”

“And can you tell us why?”

He closed his eyes.

“Magneto wanted us to follow him without any questioning.”

Logan went closer to the bed.

“You wanted to be able to control at least how much you were eating and when you were doing that, right?”

Remy nodded slowly. The other three looked at him with sadness. In the end, Hank was the first one to speak.

“Alright. Logan, Jean. Why don’t you show Remy the way to the kitchen. Give him some food. But remember not to eat too much at one time, Remy. Your stomach will not like it and I don’t want you to lose any more weight. Okay?”

Once again, he just nodded. Jean grabbed his hand and gently pulled him off from the bed. Logan passed his coat to him.

“Put it on. You have almost no body fat to keep you warm. And it’s pretty cold in the kitchen for some reason that I still don’t understand.”

As they left, Hank sighed. He hoped that the other X-Men would be just as calm as Jean and Logan. Although he couldn’t really understand why the Wolverine was so nice to the boy. After a few seconds he shrugged. He would find out, sooner or later.

Chapter Text

Remy followed them into the kitchen and immediately understood what Logan had been talking about. It was cold in there. Instinctively he pulled the coat closer around himself. All the others were in there and Remy put one hand into his pocket when they all turned to him. Jean put her hand on his shoulder.

“It’s alright.”

Kitty flew up from her place with a big smile. But her smile faltered when she saw his face without the armor hiding half of it. Remy stopped dead in his tracks. Logan and Jean stopped too. And suddenly he felt some sense of security. For some reason he thought that he was safe with those two. That, even if he decided to turn around and get away from the others, Jean and Logan would follow him. Not to catch him and hurt him, but to make sure that he was alright. And that was what made him continue. He walked further into the kitchen and sunk down onto one of the chairs. Kitty went to sit next to him, but one look from Jean made her change her mind and go sit next to Warren. Jean sat down next to Remy while Logan took the place on his other side. Ororo smiled to them and lifted a big bowl with soup over to the table. She put it in the middle and turned to Jean.

“Jean. A little help?”

The telepath smiled and concentrated on the small bowls that were standing on the kitchen counter. They lifted into the air and flew over to the table. Remy looked at her with small surprise but didn’t say anything. One of the bowls landed in front of him and he hesitated again. Could he really do this? Ororo smiled and poured some soup in her bowl before she passed on the ladle to Scott who was sitting next to him. It went around the table and stopped at Remy. He just held it and kept staring at the big bowl of soup. Jean frowned slightly but didn’t say anything. He glanced over to her and she smiled softly. And he understood. She was giving him the choice of not doing it. She was letting him decide. And that made him suddenly make a decision. He reached forward and poured some of the soup in his bowl. Not much, since he remembered what Hank had said about not eating too much in the beginning. He then passed the ladle on to Logan and the feral wrinkled his nose.

“Vegetable soup? Really? What am I? A rabbit?”

Remy hesitated for a second before he said:

“Well, with that hair of yours one could think if you aren’t trying to look like one.”

Kitty and Warren burst out laughing. Ororo and Scott just smiled while Jean rolled her eyes. Rogue’s expression didn’t change. Logan raised one eyebrow and growled. Remy just looked at him with his best innocent eyes and the feral huffed out an irritated breath. And Remy relaxed. This was much better. Not having to worry so much. He never could joke around with the other Acolytes. Pyro always got mad when he turned out to be funnier than him. Colossus didn’t want to joke around. He was always so serious. And Sabretooth would just beat him up when he tried to joke around with him. So that was a nice change. He looked down into his bowl and hesitated again. It looked very inviting. But he was still not sure. It was his choice. He knew now that none of the others would try to force him to eat. Then the door opened and the professor wheeled inside. He nodded his head to them and stopped his wheelchair next to Scott’s chair. Ororo got up and handed him a bowl. He smiled to her and got himself some soup. Remy looked over to Jean and the telepath smiled. He then slowly lifted a spoonful of soup up to his mouth. It tasted good. It was far from the spicy food that he missed from his time in Louisiana, but it was still good. He slowly kept eating, not once looking up to look at the others. He got through half of the bowl, before he started to feel sick. He put the spoon away and felt Jean put her hand on his shoulder.

“Remy? Are you alright?”

He shook his head. Jean quickly moved closer to him.

“What’s happening?”

He swallowed the sour taste and asked:

“Is there a bathroom somewhere here?”

Logan was the first person who caught on to what he meant. He quickly stood up.

“Come on, cajun. Let’s go.”

Remy flew up and followed Logan. They got to the bathroom around a minute later and Remy sat down on the toilet. Logan looked at him with something very similiar to worry.

“How are you holding up?”

Remy sighed.

“I’m… I’m not sure. I don’t want to throw up. I…”

Logan walked over to him and crouched down in front of him.

“Listen here, Remy. You have been starving yourself for a very long time. Your body is not used to getting food. You’ll most probably feel sick quite often right now. It’s something you have to get used to. But it WILL get better. Alright?”

Remy frowned.

“How do you know?”

Logan shrugged.

“I just know. Call it instinct. But I know. You’ll simply have to trust me on this one.”

Slowly, Remy nodded. The sour taste had disappeared and he felt a bit better. Then the door opened and Ororo walked inside. She was holding a cup in her hand. Steam was rising up from it and the whole bathroom was filled with a smell of mint. She stopped near the door and asked with concern:

“Are you alright?”

Remy looked her up and down. She just smiled and waited for him to decide if he would trust her or not. In the end he nodded slightly.

“I’m a bit better. Thank you.”

He stood up and so did Logan. Ororo looked down to the mug.

“I made some mint tea. It usually helps me when I’m feeling sick or have trouble with my stomach. I thought that it would maybe help you. Do you want to go back to the kitchen or come with all of us to the living room?”

And Remy had to sit down again. He felt overwhelmed. After all those years of having to blindly follow Magneto, he was suddenly getting so many choices. And it started to get too much for him. Logan, understanding what was happening, crouched down again.

“Hey. Take it easy, Remy. It’s alright. Just take your time. No one here is going to force you into anything.”

It took him around three whole minutes to collect himself. He stood up again and turned to Ororo.

“I would like to join the others.”

Ororo smiled at him.

“Come on then. Jean most probably kept a place for you.”

She went out and Remy slowly followed her. Logan sighed and looked around the bathroom. He was so angry at Magneto for doing that to the boy, that he wanted to smash something. But he knew that it would most probably not help the cajun so he calmed down and slowly followed the two other mutants that were going towards the living room. Remy was slowly following Ororo. He felt almost overwhelming anger coming from Logan but decided to ignore it. It didn’t seem to be directed towards him. This was all still very confusing. They were not angry at him. Which they should be. He fought against them. He followed Magneto. He had hurt people and mutants before. And they all seemed to be alright with taking him in. Especially Jean, Logan, Ororo and Kitty. Hank had only treated him as a patient. Another hurt mutant. He said it himself. There was no saying how he would be treated once he got completely healed. Warren seemed to be friendly but hadn’t said anything. And, Remy had noticed all those glances that he got from the winged mutant. He was being put under surveillance. Even if no one really showed it. Rogue was a big unknown. She hadn’t really make any eye contact with him and seemed to mostly be annoyed that they had taken someone new in. And the professor… Remy still wasn’t sure how he felt about living with a telepath again. But he decided that he would try. For Jean and Logan. Because they had tried to be friendly. Because he was going to give it another chance. Just one more. He walked into the living room and, when he noticed Jean’s smile, he thought that maybe this was his chance. Maybe this would work out.

Chapter Text

He had gotten his own room. It wasn’t that shocking when he thought about it. He had his own room when he was with Sinister too. And the Acolytes. But this was the first time he had gotten a room where no one was keeping an eye on him. With Sinister, it was the mind games. Because, even though his walls were strong, there was no way to keep Sinister out for too long. It was simply impossible. And the other Marauders were often just walking inside his room without even knocking. It wasn’t easy to live with them. And with the Acolytes it was almost worse. Magneto seemed to always know what they were up to. Nothing ever got past him. Every time Remy did something wrong, he was punished. It wasn’t easy to live there either. But now, it seemed that nothing like that would happen again. Logan had said that his room was just a few doors away and that no one would just walk in. That those were the rules in the mansion. And that it would be best if he followed those rules. No barging into the other’s rooms. Especially professor’s room. No loud noises after 10 pm. No leaving the mansion without telling someone or at least leaving a note in the kitchen where it would be easily found. Those were easy, when he thought about it. But there was still the fact that he would have to live in the same place with two telepaths. Not that he thought Jean would do anything to him. But he wasn’t sure about the professor. He was nervous. He admitted that. There was never anything good happening when a telepath that strong was close to him. Sitting down on the bed, he sighed. This would not be easy. Honestly, all he wanted to do was run away. Leave it all behind. The problem was, he didn’t know where to go. He was banished from New Orleans. If he went back he would get imprisoned in the best case and killed in the worst. There was no way he would go back to Sinister. Not when he had the chance to finally fully get away from him. And he couldn’t go back to Magneto. Even if he wanted. The mutant terrorist would not take him back. So the safest place for him, until he knew what to do, was the mansion. He sighed and slowly stretched his empathy out to the rest of the mansion. No hostile feelings seemed to be coming from anyone. Slowly he slipped down from the bed and sat down in a meditation stance. His eyes closed and he started to take deep breaths. Once he was calm enough, he started to feel around for the kinetic energy around him. It took him a few tries, but in the end he started to feel the outlines of the furniture in the room. He kept his eyes closed as he stood up and started to walk around. Step after step it went easier and easier. After a few minutes, he started to go through some of the easier fighting stances and kicks. His feet and fists stopped millimeters from the furniture and walls. His ribs hurt but he pushed through it. Suddenly, he heard the door open and turned quickly towards it, with a charged card in his hand. His eyes were still closed and, by the movement around the person, he understood that it was Logan. The man froze in the doorway and finally did Remy open his eyes. Logan was staring at him.

“You…”

He quickly closed the door behind him and stepped closer to Remy, who had pulled the charge back and put the card in his pocket.

“How did you do that?”

Remy hesitated. Should he tell him? Not even Sinister had known about him being able to see through his mutation. But, when he felt around, he didn’t notice anything hostile about him. So he decided to talk.

“There is something moving all the time. Dust, molecules. As long as it’s not a living thing, I can feel it. That way, I can know who someone is and what they are doing, by simply concentrating on the dust around them. I can’t charge things without touching them, but I can feel them. That makes life easier for me because, even though I can see in the dark, I know that I would be able to walk around blindfolded.”

The feral nodded.

“Smart.”

He pointed to the bed.

“Can I sit down?”

Remy, although surprised that he was asked, nodded. Logan sat down on the bed and sighed.

“Look, I wanted to talk to you about something. Before anything happens.”

He pointed towards the bed and Remy sat down as far away from the feral as possible. Logan frowned at that but didn’t comment it.

“Alright. Listen now. I know I have said it before, but I feel like I should say this again. Charles will not hurt you. He will not try to get into your head.”

Remy opened his mouth to say something, but the feral just put his hand up to silence him.

“Wait. I know you won’t believe me immediately. That’s not what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted was to know, who you have met, to make you so damn distrustful of telepaths?”

Remy froze. There was no way he was going to talk about it. About Sinister. So he just repeated what he had said from the beginning.

“It’s not like that. Magneto warned me about the professor. That’s all.”

Logan sighed heavily.

“Don’t try with me, Remy. I know that you are lying.”

Then his expression softened a bit.

“I didn’t know who I was when I got here.”

Remy frowned.

“Really. I had been through some nasty experiments back then and I wasn’t exactly sure who I was. When I got here, I thought it would all start again. The experiments, the pain. But this is not that kind of place. This is a safe house for everyone who needs to get away from their past. Charles made sure of that. No one here is in a danger. At least not from the people that live here. And if danger comes from the outside, we never leave the person that it’s threatening.”

Remy was staring at him, drinking up every word. The feral wasn’t lying. Remy himself was a master in lying. And it wasn’t easy to fool him, especially since he could feel their emotions. But still, it was hard to really believe it. That there would be a place where he could be completely safe. Where he could trust people. It would take time for him to understand that. He needed some time alone. Logan, almost as if reading his thoughts, stood up and started walking towards the door. In the doorway, he turned back and said calmly:

“Don’t move around too much. If you do more damage to your body, Jean might kill me for not keeping a better eye on you while you aren’t that well.”

Then he winced and shivered slightly.

“And believe me when I say that you don’t want a pissed off Jean after you.”

And he left. Remy sunk down onto his back. His nerves were still on the edge but the calm from before was there in the back of his mind. He knew that meditating would be to no avail so he opened his eyes once again and stood up. No one said anything about him having to stay in the room, so he was going to wander around a bit. Slowly he opened the door and let his kinetic part of the mutation spread around him. He felt every bit of furniture and could see what was further down the hall. There was no one else there so he moved forward. The stairs led him to the entrance hall. He looked at the door. It would be so easy to just escape. No one was there. He could just open the door and run. But then he remembered that there was nowhere to run. No one to go to. And, as he suddenly realized, he didn’t want to leave. He was feeling good in the mansion. Even though he was still not sure if he could trust the people. Slowly, he continued through the mansion. Something moved on his right and he jumped to the side. Somehow, he managed to hit a low shelf and blackness appeared in front of his eyes when pain shot through his side. A gasp escaped his lips and he fell to his knees. Pain was quickly spreading through his body and breathing got harder. Kitty, who had just run through the wall next to him, looked at him in shock and slight panic. Quickly she turned around and ran through the wall to where she knew that Jean was. She needed to get help. Meanwhile, Remy was trying to take a breath, but the pain in his ribs hindered him. The blackness around him spread and, slowly, he fell to the floor, unconscious.

Chapter Text

The first thing Remy heard when he woke up was beeping. And he felt pure fear. Sinister. They gave him to Sinister. He thought that he maybe should jump up and try to escape, but he stopped himself when he remembered the last time he tried to escape. It hadn’t ended well. So he just sighed and stayed on the bed with his eyes closed. The needle in his arm made him uncomfortable but he knew better than to try to remove it. He thought about what must’ve happened. The talk with Logan. The walk in the halls. Kitty suddenly appearing from the wall. Him jumping to the side and hitting that damn shelf. Maybe he broke something. Destroyed something that was valuable. And they decided that he wasn’t worth keeping. He almost jumped up when he felt a hand on his arm. He forced himself to stay still and keep his eyes closed.

“Remy. I know you are awake.”

His eyes snapped open. Jean was standing next to him, smiling.

“Hallo there. How are you feeling?”

Instead of answering, he looked around the room. It wasn’t Sinister’s laboratory. This was the medical room where he had been before. He was still at the mansion. Jean looked at him with concern.

“Remy?”

He turned back to her. Never before had he been so happy to see someone. But at the same time, he was nervous. He wasn’t sure about what they would do to him, now that they had him in the lab. Would they turn on him? Would he get hurt again? But Jean just smiled and sat down on the edge of the bed.

“How are you feeling?”

This was the second time she had said that. Remy was unsure about what that meant, but he decided that he should answer her, before she ran out of patience.

“I’m fine.”

The telepath rolled her eyes.

“Don’t lie to me, Remy. I don’t need to get into your head to know that you are not alright.”

Something in Remy shifted and he answered slowly, in the same voice he would have used on Sinister.

“If you know that, why do you ask?”

Jean frowned when she heard the shift in his voice. Slowly, she reached her hand out and put it on his forehead. No fever. But there was something in his eyes that made her worried. She reached out to Logan’s mind and called him down to the medical room. The feral would be the safest option since it seemed that Remy trusted him. A few seconds later, Logan walked inside, and Jean started to wonder how fast he had ran to get there so quickly. Remy’s eyes shifted from Jean to Logan. The feral grinned at him and walked over to his bed.

“Hey, kid. You better?”

The cajun hesitated. This was a phrasing he hadn’t heard before. People always asked how he was or how hurt he was or, in Sinister’s case, how much more he could take before he passed out. No one had ever asked him if he was feeling better. So he didn’t know what to say. Logan rolled his eyes and sat down on one chair.

“You know, an answer would be nice.”

And the nervousness in his body disappeared. Because this was a feral. Ferals were, in a way, easy. Slowly, he tried to sit up, only to gasp at the pain that shot through his body. Jean put her hand on his shoulder and pushed gently, as if she wanted to show him that he had to stay down. Logan rolled his eyes.

“Come on, Gumbo. You know as well as I that you shouldn’t be moving around.”

Remy took a deep breath.

“What happened?”

“Kitty surprised you and you jumped into a shelf. Which, after what I saw in your room, still shocks me.”

Jean frowned.

“What did you see in his room?”

Remy froze, thinking that Logan would tell, but the feral just shrugged. Jean glared at him, but he didn’t say anything else, so she turned towards Remy.

“Your ribs seem to be pretty beaten up so it would be best if you could stay in bed for some time. I’ll take the IV away, but you’ll have to promise me that you will drink. I had to put it in, since we didn’t know how long you’ll be out. And I didn’t want you to get dehydrated. Alright?”

The cajun nodded and tensed up when Jean reached towards his arm. The telepath froze when she noticed that. Logan raised his eyebrows.

“Remy. It’s alright.”

In his mind he told Jean to just keep moving. After a second of hesitation, she continued on with her previous task. Gently, she turned the IV off and pulled the needle out of his arm. Remy took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He needed to calm down. This wasn’t Sinister. There would be no experiments. He was safe. Logan frowned and glanced up to Jean. When she met his eyes, he made a move with his head towards the door. Jean understood. She nodded and went out. Logan moved closer to the bed, but not close enough to crowd in on the boy.

“Gumbo?”

Remy’s eyes snapped open.

“Huh?”

The feral smirked.

“What? I’m not allowed to give you nicknames?”

Then his smirk disappeared and he looked serious once again.

“Listen, Remy. I need to talk to you.”

Remy nodded slowly. He didn’t like the sound of it, but he knew that there was no way for him to get away now.

“Before you started to work with Magneto, where were you?”

“New Orleans.”

His answer came immediately and Logan frowned.

“I mean after that. After New Orleans and before Magneto.”

Remy kept his eyes on him, making sure to not show anything on his face.

“I joined him after I left New Orleans.”

The feral sighed.

“Please, Remy. I’m giving you a chance here to tell me the truth. You can trust me.”

They stayed in silence for almost five minutes. Then, Remy decided that he would tell him. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to. He wanted to come clean. At least to Logan. He trusted the man.

“I… I worked for Sinister.”

He watched as Logan’s eyes widened and regretted opening his mouth. He shouldn't have said anything. They would hate him now. Every little bit of trust they might have had in him, would be gone. But then, Logan took a deep breath and sighed.

“For how long?”

Remy was shocked. He was prepared for shouting. Maybe a beating. But the feral seemed to be calm. Very calm.

“I was around 18 when I left New Orleans. I spent two years with Sinister. Then I joined Magneto.”

Logan put up one hand.

“You’re lying. But you’re also telling the truth. And it’s confusing me.”

For a moment, Remy just stared at him. Then he seemed to remember that he was talking to a feral. And, because of him still being hurt, he still didn’t have the same control over the emotions he was projecting. He closed his eyes. Logan put a hand on his shoulder.

“Remy. I’m not going to be mad at you. And, whatever you say, I will not use it against you. I swear.”

Remy looked at him. This was new. Logan was telling the truth. He could feel it. So he decided that he would tell him everything.

“There was an accident in New Orleans. I was going to marry a girl from the Assassins guild. But, before the marriage, her brother challenged me to a duel. We fought and I threw a knife at him. A charged knife. I… I didn’t even know I could do that. The marriage never went through. From what I know, Bella married someone else shortly after that. Julien survived but lost his arm. Jean-Luc, mon pere, was forced to somehow punish me for what I did. He knew that if I stayed in Louisiana, I would most probably get killed by the assassins. So he banished me. I had to leave. I went to New York, where my mutation got out of control. I accidentally blew up a theatre. Some people got injured but, thankfully, no one died. That was when I heard about Sinister. I knew that he could help me. So I went there. He said he would help me but on one condition. I had to work for him to pay off the debt it would put me in. I didn't know what else to do, so I agreed. He helped me. Made sure I had control over my mutation. But the price.”

He shivered but, when he realized that Logan wasn't looking at him with hate or disgust, just continued on with the story.

“I put together the Marauders. It took me some time to find them all, but in the end I did it. Thought it would be all. But he wanted one more thing. I had to lead the Marauders down to the tunnels.”

Logan frowned.

“Tunnels? You don't mean…?”

Remy nodded.

“The Morlocks.”

He closed his eyes and readied himself for a blow. But it never came so he opened his eyes again. Logan, still frowning, nodded.

“Keep going.”

Remy took a deep breath.

“When I saw what they did down there I tried to stop them. But Creed got in the way. He slashed me but, thanks to my accelerated healing, I escaped without scars. I ran away and was found by Magneto. He offered me a deal. He would keep me safe from Sinister, as long as I worked for him. Should've learned the first time that those deals never ended up well. But I was stupid. I agreed. I met Creed again, but I decided to play as if I didn't care. You know the rest of the story.”

Logan nodded. They sat in silence for a long moment, before he moved so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Remy. Look at me.”

Their eyes met and he smiled.

“I don't hold it against you. You were stupid, yes. But you did it all to keep people safe. Nothing would have ever happened if you didn't strike the first deal with Sinister. And you did it, because you didn’t want to hurt anyone. People can change, Remy. I am one of the biggest cases of that. Before I got here, I didn’t care who I killed or hurt. I just did what I wanted. But I got the chance to change. Now you have it too.”

The cajun just looked at him with wide eyes. A chance. Wasn’t that all he ever wanted?

                                                                  ***

Jean was crying. She had heard everything through Logan’s mind and she couldn’t understand how this boy had been through all those things and wasn’t dead. Or evil. How he managed to still be himself after going through so much. He needed a family. Friends. And she was going to give him that.

                                                                  ***

On the other side of the mansion, Xavier sighed. This was not good. He trusted Logan and his instincts. But there was something about Remy that made him feel uneasy. Slowly, he wheeled himself over to the phone and dialed the right number. He had to do something, before someone got hurt.

Chapter Text

Later that day, Jean allowed Remy to get out of bed, on the condition that he didn’t wander around too much and took it easy. He just agreed, not telling her about his sped up healing. He started to make his way towards the living room when he heard a curse from the kitchen. After a moments hesitation, he walked inside and shivered when he was hit by the cold. His forehead wrinkled when he saw Scott looking down into a saucepan. He took a slow step closer.

“Is everything alright?”

Scott jumped and cursed again. He turned around to Remy and sighed.

“Remy. Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

The cajun tilted his head slightly and pointed to the pan.

“What’s that?”

Scott sighed.

“Jean asked me to make some food for everyone. Something light so that you could eat it and in big quantity so that Logan and Hank don’t have to go hungry.”

For a moment, Remy just stared at him. Then he burst out laughing. Scott looked at him with an annoyed glare.

“Shut up. And if you aren’t going to help with the food, get out.”

Slowly, Remy calmed down. He glanced over to the stove and hesitated. Scott, seeing that, waited in silence. Then the cajun nodded.

“Alright. Let me guess that you have no idea what you are doing.”

Scott shrugged.

“I’m not the best at cooking, alright? I’m not sure what Jean is expecting.”

Remy looked around the kitchen.

“Do you have eggs?”

Scott nodded.

“Tomatoes? Cucumbers? Bacon? Spices?”

Another nod.

“Okey. Take the tomatoes and cucumbers out, wash them and cut them to small pieces.”

Then he took out the bacon from the fridge and dumped it all in the pan. He kept an eye on it while he started cracking eggs. Scott was cutting the vegetables and glancing over to the cajun from time to time. There was something about him that he just couldn’t understand. Why had he joined Magneto when he was so clearly not evil. Why had he saved Jean, risking his own life in the process? Those and more questions flew around in his head. Meanwhile, Remy had gotten the bacon hot and nodded towards Scott.

“Dump all the vegetables in here.”

Scott picked up the bowl with them and did as he was told. Remy gave him a wooden spoon and sad calmly:

“Keep moving it all. The tomatoes love to get burned. Where do you keep all your spices?”

Scott pointed towards the right cabinet and concentrated on the food. Remy opened the cabinet and started to look through the spices. He took out salt pepper and cayenne. Then he hesitated. Not many people liked spicy food. Then he shrugged and pulled out basil, dill, oregano, thyme and parsley. He carried them back to scott and put them on the table next to the bowl with eggs. He thought back to how tante Mattie used to season the food and put in the spices in the eggs. Then he lifted the bowl and put it all in the pan.

“Keep mixing. Or I could do it while you take the bread out.”

Scott nodded and stretched the spoon over to Remy.

“It’s better if you do it. Just so that there are no accidents. Kitty almost burned down half the kitchen once when she was cooking. Jean and Ororo were furious.”

Remy grabbed the spoon with a nod and small smile.

“What did they do?”

By now he understood that there were no beatings at this place. But there had to be some kind of punishment. And it was always good to know beforehand. Scott shrugged where he was cutting the bread into slices.

“They agreed to put her on washing the dishes for a month, cleaning up the living room after movie nights for two months and no shopping for two weeks. I think Jean wanted to take her electronics away too but Ororo stepped in and said that it would be too much.”

Remy had to say that he was shocked but, then again, maybe Magneto had really been lying. Maybe there really were no bad punishments here. Washing the dishes wasn’t that bad. Neither was cleaning. Scott got done with the bread and put it in the middle of the table. Then he walked over to the stove.

“How’s it going?”

Remy took out a normal spoon and gave it to him.

“Taste it.”

Slowly, Scott put a bit of the eggs and vegetables on the spoon and put it in his mouth. His eyes widened. Remy shifted from leg to leg.

“What? Too much?”

Scott shook his head quickly.

“No. This is perfect. Jean, however amazing of a cook she is, never seasons things enough. Neither does Ororo. You have to cook more often.”

Remy felt himself smile. This was nice. Nothing that he had expected when he first woke up in the Blackbird, but still nice. Scott noticed the shiver that went through the cajuns body and frowned.

“Where is your coat?”

Remy shrugged.

“I don’t know. Jean must’ve taken it somewhere.”

Scott quickly walked over to one of the closets in the corner and pulled out a big lumberjack hoodie.

“Here. Put this on. You’re freezing. And there is still something wrong with the temperature in here.”

Remy frowned at the hoodie. Scott smiled.

“It’s alright. It’s Logan’s. He usually puts it on when Jean is nagging him about putting more clothes on when he chops wood in the winter. He won’t mind you having it on.”

Slowly, Remy reached out and grabbed the hoodie. It was red and black. For a moment he got the odd thought that it would fit his eyes, before he quickly pulled it on and relaxed. It was warm. He couldn’t understand how Logan could want to ever wear it. He remembered Creed always complaining about the warmth. It must’ve been a nightmare for Logan. He lifted the pan with the hot food over to the table while a plan formed in his mind. Scott smiled, seeing that the shivers had stopped and went over to a button on the wall. He pressed it down and spoke into the small opening next to it.

“All the X-Men report to the kitchen. Food it ready. Last person takes the dishes.”

Remy quickly let his kinetic energy spread out and felt several shifts when people rushed towards the kitchen. Then he jumped slightly when Kurt suddenly appeared right next to him, with Kitty. The teleporter smiled apologetically.

“I’m sorry.”

Remy nodded.

“It’s alright.”

Moments later the other X-Men appeared. Logan was the last one through the door and he cursed, earning himself stern looks from Xavier and Jean. The feral glanced over to Remy and frowned seeing the hoodie. Remy quickly smiled and took a step towards him.

“Do you think I could maybe keep this one? At least until I get some more clothes for myself? You don’t freeze, since you are a feral. I’m used to much warmer climates.”

Logan grinned.

“Sure, Gumbo. Keep it.”

Jean frowned but didn’t say anything. They all sat down and started putting the food on their plates. Warren was the first one to taste. His eyes widened.

“Wow. This is delicious. Scott you shock me.”

One after another, all the X-Men praised the food. First then, did Scott smile widely and point towards Remy.

“Actually, Remy did it. I just cut the vegetables. It was his idea.”

Everyone turned towards Remy who, as they first now noticed, was eating without a word of protest or hesitation. Jean smiled towards him and he returned the smile. There was a frown on Xavier’s forehead, but it disappeared quickly when Hank dragged him into a conversation. Remy was feeling relaxed. Scott wasn’t bad either. Without even realizing it, he moved the man up onto the list of people he trusted. He got a spot right next to Logan and Jean. He smiled softly. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

Chapter Text

Later the same day, Remy found himself standing in the main hallway. He was staring at the door. The need to get out was still there, but there was also something else present. Something he couldn’t place. He couldn’t place it anywhere, but it wasn’t a bad feeling so he ignored it. Suddenly, he felt someone approaching. Their feelings were calm so, not wanting to appear jumpy, he didn’t turn around to look who it was. But he did tense up a bit when he recognized the rolling sound of Xavier’s wheelchair.

“Bonjour, professeur.”

Xavier wheeled up to him and stopped next to the boy.

“Hello, Remy. I was wondering if you could maybe come upstairs with me. I would like to talk to you.”

Remy glanced over to him. He didn’t sense any shift in the man’s emotions so he decided to agree. After all, this was a telepath. Even if he said no, the professor could just force him to do it.

“Of course.”

Xavier smiled and turned his wheelchair around. Remy glanced at the door and took a deep breath. He needed to calm down. Slowly, he followed the man into an elevator and they went all the way to the top. They got out and Remy looked around with curiosity. He hadn’t been up here yet. The corridor had a few doors but other then that, it was empty. Xavier noticed the boy’s curious gaze, but didn’t say anything. He wheeled over to his door and frowned when it wouldn’t open. For a moment he just stared at it, before he sighed. Remy looked at him with a questioning look.

“I asked Jean to clean my office earlier today. She must’ve locked it by accident.”

Remy tilted his head slightly, before he spoke up. His voice was careful.

“I could open it.”

The professor looked up at him.

“With all due respect Remy, I’m not sure I want you to blow my door up.”

Remy’s eyes widened. How could he be so calm about it? But then he shook his head quickly.

“Non. I can…”

He hesitated for a second.

“I can pick the lock.”

Xavier frowned.

“You can pick locks?”

He nodded slowly, starting to regret talking. He would be kicked out now. There was no way the X-Men would ever want a thief in their mansion. But he got the shock of his life when Xavier nodded.

“If you could do that, it would be very helpful.”

Still in shock, he pulled a bobby pin that he had put in the pocket of Logan’s hoodie, which he still had on. Just seconds later, the lock clicked and the door opened. Xavier looked at the boy with shock. There was no way a human with a normal background would be able to pick a lock so quickly. Remy took a step away from the door and Xavier forced himself to smile.

“Thank you, Remy.”

He wheeled inside the office and the boy followed him.

“Do sit down.”

Slowly, Remy sat down on the chair. The professor stopped his wheelchair on the other side of the desk and smiled.

“There are a few things I need to talk to you about, Remy. First of all, I got the medical report from Hank on you. I noticed that Hank put an estimated age at 24. Why did you not give him your real age?”

Remy sighed softly.

“I don’t know my exact age. It must be over 20, since I was 18 when I got banished.”

“What happened after that? What made you lose track?”

The cajun froze. He cursed in every language he knew in his head. He had told Hank that he didn’t know because he grew up on the streets. Now he had been caught in a lie. Xavier leaned forwards a bit.

“Remy. I heard what you told Logan.”

Remy’s eyes widened and the man continued quickly:

“It was not his fault. He didn’t know.”

But that didn’t make it any better. Remy thought back to what Logan had said. That Xavier would not get into his head without permission. This proved that he had been wrong. And that Xavier wasn’t as wonderful as the others had painted him. The professor frowned, when he noticed the sudden mistrust in the boys eyes.

“Remy?”

“Was Magneto right?”

For a moment he was quiet. Then, very slowly, he asked:

“Right about what?”

“About you. You can get into others heads. You do it without their permission.”

“Remy…”

The cajun flew up from his chair.

“Tell me the truth!”

Not even realizing it, he put his charm behind those words. Xavier was shocked when he suddenly started to talk, telling the cajun everything.

“I can get into people’s heads without their permission. I usually don’t do it, unless someone could be a threat to the school. I got into Logan’s head because I snapped up his thoughts about you and I wanted to figure out a bit more about you.”

He snapped his mouth shut and looked at the cajun with wide eyes.

“What was that?”

Remy sat down slowly.

“I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

He readied himself for the yelling. Beating. But nothing came. Xavier tilted his head slightly.

“You can control other people?”

He shook his head and felt sudden feeling of exhaustion coming from the telepath.

“Remy. I need you to be honest with me. Trust me, whatever you say, I will not judge you. You will not be punished for anything you did in your past. I promise.”

The black and red eyes looked up and Remy checked the emotions in the room. They were still the same. Calm. Slowly, he nodded. The truth. Honesty. After so many years of lying to survive, could he really tell the entire truth? He had to try.

“I lied to Hank. I… I lost the grip on time when I was with Magneto. He didn’t let me close to any calendar. I didn’t get to leave the house unless it was to fight. I didn’t know how long time had passed.”

Xavier smiled softly. He was happy that the boy was being honest.

“Can you estimate how long time passed between the time when you joined Erik and the first fight with us?”

Remy nodded.

“The first fight was two days after I joined.”

“The first fight in which you participated on Erik’s side was a year ago.”

Remy’s eyes lit up. That gave him something to work with. But that would mean… He gasped quietly.

“I’m 21.”

He hadn’t been so wrong. After all, he had said ‘24 give or take two years’. But he had been more than sure that he would be closer to 24 or even 25. Not 21. He glanced over to the calendar on the desk and noticed that it was just March. It wasn’t even his birthday yet. He was still 20. Xavier gave him the time to collect his thoughts. After a few minutes, he spoked up again.

“Can we continue?”

Remy nodded.

“I understand from your reactions that you have been abused. I need to know who it was, Remy.”

The cajun frowned.

“Why?”

“So that I can help. I want to help you, Remy.”

“Talking will not help. What happened, happened. No talking can change it.”

For a moment, Xavier wanted to protest, but seeing the determination in the boy’s odd eyes, he nodded.

“Alright. Could you tell me how you could make me tell you the truth without me even realizing what I was doing?”

This was easier.

“It’s part of my mutation. Like a charm. I can make people do what I want. I force my will onto them. I don’t exactly have complete control over it, and sometimes I do it without knowing. But it doesn’t seem to work if I don’t have eye contact with the person I’m using it on.”

The professor nodded. That made sense.

“I’ll let you go in a moment, Remy. Just one more thing. Is there anything we should know about you? Anything that maybe makes you feel bad or scared. We will not use it against you. We just want to keep away from things that might make you uncomfortable.”

Remy thought about that. Would he be able to tell them all his secrets? A chance, Remy. He reminded himself about Jean’s smile. Logan’s acceptance. The day with Scott.

“I don’t like cold. And… I don’t like people moving to quickly towards me. Especially men.”

Xavier nodded again.

“And you don’t like telepaths, right?”

Remy shrugged slightly. There wasn’t any accusation in the professor’s voice so he answered truthfully.

“I don’t have anything against Jean. But… It’s hard to suddenly get along with the man you were taught to fear.”

A nod was all he got for a long moment. Then, Xavier wheeled back a bit.

“That’s all, Remy. Thank you for being honest with me.”

Remy quickly stood up. He knew a dismissal when he heard it. He walked out of the office and, a few minutes later, he notice that his feet had taken him back to the front door. He started staring at it again. And, once again, he felt someone approaching. This time, it was steps. Logan came to a stop next to him.

“Thanks for taking that hoodie.”

Remy nodded.

“I know. Creed would have hated it too.”

Logan snorted.

“Well, it’s good that you know about ferals. Might make my life easier. But I meant what I said. Keep it. You need warm clothes now.”

Without even realizing what he was doing, Remy moved a bit closer to the feral. Logan frowned at him, and the cajun quickly stepped away.

“I’m sorry. It’s just… You’re a feral. I… It’s nothing. I’m sorry.”

Logan’s frown deepened before sudden realization appeared in his eyes.

“You’re an empath. How could I forget. You feed off my emotions, right?”

Slowly, he nodded. Logan walked close to him and, making sure to keep his movements slow, put an arm around his shoulders.

“It’s alright Remy. I understand. Come on. Let’s get into the living room and put on some movie. Just relax for a bit. And, if you ever feel like you need um…”

Remy quickly jumped in.

“Get high?”

Logan smirked.

“Yeah. If you ever need to get high, don’t hesitate to come to me. I don’t want you to try to find some other feral out there and maybe end up with Creed again.”

Remy shivered slightly, before he smiled. Ferals, he liked. Ferals were easy. But then he remembered the talk he had with the professor.

“Logan. Xavier listened to the entire conversation where I told you about Sinister.”

The growl that ripped out of Logan’s chest would scare off even the bravest warriors. But Remy just felt calm. The anger wasn’t aimed at him. And now he had the proof he had needed. Logan wasn’t going to betray him. Logan didn’t lie.

Chapter Text

Remy was slowly falling asleep. He had started to ignore the movie around 20 minutes ago, and was just keeping his eyes on the screen to make Logan think that he was awake. They were sitting next to each other, their shoulders touching. Remy had drawn his legs up onto the couch and pulled them close to his chest. He felt his eyes shut and snapped them open again. Next to him, Logan sighed and put his arm around Remy’s shoulders. He pulled the cajun closer to himself and Remy found himself suddenly leaning against the ferals side. He glanced up to Logan’s face.

“Sleep, Remy.”

And then, before the younger man could say anything, he added more softly.

“It’s alright.”

After a few seconds hesitation, Remy let his head fall onto Logan’s shoulder and relaxed. Logan smiled and let the calmness envelop him. He wasn’t sure if it was his own or Remy’s, but he accepted it. The movie ended and the room became dark, but he still didn’t move. ‘Jean? Are you awake?’ A few seconds later, he heard her answer in his head. ‘Yes. What is it, Logan?’ ‘Could you come down to the living room with a thick blanket? It will get cold here and Remy just fell asleep. I don’t want to wake him.’ A few minutes later, he heard Jean’s steps coming towards the living room. She opened the door and made a move to turn on the big light, so he quickly thought ‘Don’t’. She frowned, before she went over to a small lamp and turned it on. Soft, yellow, light spread around the room. Remy frowned, but didn’t wake up. Jean smiled when she saw them.

“He looks so calm.”

Logan nodded and Jean gently put the thick blanket around Remy. The cajun snuggled into the warmth and relaxed even more. Jean went over to one of the armchairs and sat down. Logan frowned at her.

“What?”

“I listened in to what he told you. About Sinister.”

Logan felt rage build inside of him, but quickly calmed down when Remy whimpered in his sleep. He pulled the cajun closer to himself.

“I know what I did was wrong. But I just want to help him. “

Logan sighed.

“You’re not helping by not giving him privacy. Just think about it, Jean. The way he is mistrustful when it comes to telepaths. You getting information about him like that will only make it worse.”

Then he sighed again.

“Especially since Chuck did it too. And told him about it.”

Jean’s eyebrows flew up.

“Professor did what? He never gets into our heads without permission.”

“He doesn’t trust Remy.”

For a few minutes, they sat in silence. Then, Logan spoke up again.

“Jean? Can you do something for me?”

She nodded.

“Talk to Scott. You saw how well he got along with Remy. Tell him as much as you can, without telling him about Remy’s past. Just explain the things that can be noticed now. Can you do that?”

She nodded again and closed her eyes. Remy’s eyes opened suddenly.

“I’m not mad at you, Jean.”

Both Jean and Logan jumped slightly. Two pairs of eyes turned towards the cajun.

“You’re not asleep?”

“Non. Woke up when you started to talk. But I’m not angry at you.”

Jean tilted her head.

“Why not? I listened to something I shouldn’t listen to.”

He smiled from where he was snuggled close to Logan. He felt calm and relaxed.

“You shouldn’t have. But I forgive you. I know you only meant well. Really. It’s alright. I… It’s good that I won’t have to tell it all again.”

His eyes started to slip shut again, but he forced himself to stay awake. Jean smiled with thankfulness.

“Thank you, Remy. Thank you.”

He smiled. Logan rolled his eyes.

“You girls done?”

Remy moved quickly and put his elbow in Logan’s stomach. The feral grunted and gently smacked Remy’s head. The cajun smirked before he pushed himself even closer to Logan. Jean smiled softly at them and stood up.

“I’ll leave you two. I’m in charge for breakfast tomorrow and I want to sleep a bit before that.”

The two men nodded and Jean left the room. Logan glanced down at Remy.

“Can I ask you something?”

Remy nodded.

“Why do you trust Jean so much but not Charles? They are both telepaths.”

Remy sighed and closed his eyes.

“I want to be able to trust again. And Jean is different than the professor. She has the air of honesty around her. Professor Xavier is more… I don’t know. There is something about him that I can’t trust.”

“What did Magneto tell you about him?”

Remy froze when the mutant terrorist was mentioned. Logan focused on keeping himself calm and, slowly, the cajun relaxed again. It took a few minutes of silence, before he started talking again.

“He said that Xavier betrayed him. That they were best friends, before Xavier turned his back on him and started to work against him. He said that, before they went their own ways, Xavier tried to control him to make him stay on his side. And that he had showed him… Horrible things. Things that would put Sinister and his laboratories to shame.”

Logan took a calming breath.

“Remy. That is not true. They went their own ways, yes. And it is true that they were good friends before that. But Charles never tried to control him. He wouldn’t.”

“Just like he wouldn’t get into your head without your permission?”

Remy’s voice was irritated. Logan gently turned the cajun a bit so that they were looking at each other.

“Remy. Can you just think about it for a moment? You are smart. You must understand how things are now. You worked with Magneto. It might be hard for some people to simply accept that you have switched sides.”

Remy snorted.

“Switched sides? Not like I had any other choices. I can’t go back to Magneto. I’m not going back to Sinister. What was I supposed to do? Go on the run again? How long would that work out? How long before someone captured me again? Who would it be this time? Sinister again? One of Magneto’s men? That Stryker? I’ve heard word on the streets about him. With my powers, do you really think that he would just let me go?”

Logan frowned at something the cajun had said.

“You said that you can’t go back to Magneto. Do you WANT to go back?”

Remy shook his head quickly.

“Non. Never. But it was an option before. Now, I have nowhere to go.”

Logan hugged him close again, forcing Remy’s face into the crook of his neck. The cajun snorted a short laugh out, but accepted the new position and curled up again.

“You have this place, Remy. You have me and Jean. Even Scott seems to like you. It’s alright. You’re welcome here. I’ll talk to Charles. He isn’t as bad as you think. He’ll understand.”

Remy wanted to answer but he felt himself drifting off again. He let his eyes slip closed and did a quick check on his walls, before he let sleep take hold of him. Logan smiled and shifted slightly to sit more comfortably with Remy against his chest. He pulled the blanket around the boy, making sure to not cover himself with it. Slowly, he drifted off to sleep too.

Chapter Text

Remy woke up feeling safe, which surprised him. He hadn’t felt safe in very long time. It took him a few minutes of just laying there, relaxing, when he suddenly realized something. The pillow he was laying on was moving up and down. He tried to stand up and started to get worried when he found out that he couldn’t. Understanding that his kinetic energy wouldn’t help him see, he opened his eyes and looked around. The room around him was drowning in light that came in through the big windows. And he realized where he was. Xavier’s Mansion. The memories from the night before crashed into him and he groaned. How pathetic had he been acting? Slowly, he turned his head down towards the thing that he slept on and jerked back when he realized that it was Logan. The feral sighed.

“You done freaking out?”

After a few seconds, he nodded and Logan lifted the arm that he was holding him with. Remy sat up quickly and looked away from him.

“I’m sorry.”

Logan sat up frowning.

“What for?”

“Falling asleep on you?”

It was formed as a question, because Remy wasn’t sure himself what he was apologizing for. But he had a feeling that he should. Just for safety reasons. Logan sighed quietly.

“Remy. Look at me.”

The cajun met his eyes and relaxed slightly when he didn’t see anger in them.

“I’m not mad at you. I realized that you would fall asleep on me, yesterday. As I said, we had an empath here before. The kid could not be in the same room as me. She passed out. You are more powerful than her. But I understood that you would be a bit out of it after a few hours with me.”

Remy frowned slightly.

“But…”

Logan interrupted him quickly.

“And if you don’t want to look at it that way, you can think about it as something I did for me too.”

The cajun tilted his head slightly.

“What? How?”

Logan sat a bit more comfortably and stretched his arms over his head before he started talking.

“My past isn’t exactly happy and I have trouble sleeping. You were projecting so much calmness tonight, that I didn’t wake up even once.”

Then he stood up.

“Come on. Jean is making breakfast right now. If we get there before the others, we won’t have to make the dishes.”

And, seeing Remy’s confused stare, he explained with a smile.

“Those are the rules here. The last person to the meals makes the dishes. When it comes to making food, usually it falls on Jean or Ororo. Kitty starts fires, Hank experiments too much, Warren can’t cook, Scott seems to have two left hands and Chuck can’t reach all the cabinets.”

“And you?”

Logan smirked.

“I don’t cook the meat long enough.”

Remy smiled at that and stood up, stretching at the same time. Logan sniffed in the air and wrinkled his nose.

“You need to shower. Jean will kick you out of the kitchen if you go in like that.”

The cajun hesitated.

“Um… I don’t have any clothes to change into.”

Logan frowned.

“Go to the shower on the floor where your room is. I’ll ask Scott if you could borrow some of his clothes.”

Remy wanted to protest, but one look from the feral silenced him. He just nodded and left the living room. He walked upstairs and hesitated when he realized that he didn’t know which door led to the bathroom. And he was not going to check every door. Just as he was thinking about going back to the kitchen to ask Jean, one of the doors opened and Warren stepped out. He stopped when he noticed the cajun.

“What are you doing here?”

Remy noticed not only his hostile voice, but also the anger and mistrust coming from him. And it was something he was used to. He kept his head high when he answered.

“Logan sent me up here.”

“To do what?”

The hostility didn’t disappear and he pulled his empathy back to not get affected by the other mutant’s feelings.

“Shower.”

His answer was short and to the point. This man was in no way like Jean or Logan. Or Scott for that matter. This man hated him, and Remy understood. Up until a day ago, he had been the enemy. He had worked with Magneto. Things like that would not be forgiven easily. Warren lifted his eyebrows in disbelief and took a step towards him.

“You really expect me to believe that?”

And, before Remy managed to answer, he asked another question.

“Why are you lurking outside Rogue’s room?”

Remy glanced over to the door that he was standing next to. He hadn’t been paying any attention to where exactly he was and, as he now noticed, it could be seen as if he was lurking.

“I’m not.”

Warren went even closer to him.

“Yeah. Sure. How can you expect me to believe it?”

Remy frowned.

“I can’t make you believe me.”

The winged man nodded slowly, before he suddenly attacked. Remy, who was still not feeling well, didn’t react fast enough. One second he was standing next to the door, the other he was pinned against the wall. Warren spread his wings behind him and pushed the cajun a bit more.

“Tell me the truth! Why are you here?!”

Remy froze. Pictures of angry men in dark alleys appeared in his brain. Beatings that almost left him dead. He felt shivers start to go through his body and tried to force himself to calm down, but the anger he felt was starting to get too much. Right then, the door next to them slammed open and Rogue rushed outside.

“Warren! Let him go!”

His wings twitched slightly and he turned his head towards her, but didn’t let go of Remy. Rogue took a threatening step towards him and pulled one of her gloves off. His eyes widened slightly and he stepped away quickly. Remy sunk down onto the floor, lost in his own nightmares. After a short glaring contest, Warren turned around and left. Rogue put the glove back on and, after a few seconds hesitation, she crouched down in front of the cajun.

“Remy? Are you alright?”

He looked up at her, but couldn’t concentrate on her face. She frowned, clearly not knowing what to do. But then she made a decision and moved closer to him. She stretched one hand out towards his face, but stopped when he flinched.

“Remy. It’s alright. I won’t hurt you.”

But he couldn’t see her anymore. All he saw were red eyes, so like his own. A cruel laugh. And then sudden calm. He blinked and latched onto that sudden feeling. Calm. Calm down, LeBeau. Deep breaths. After a few minutes, he got his breathing under control and managed to meet Rogue’s green eyes. She smiled at him and gently put a strand of his hair behind his ear.

“I’m not a feral, but I can control my emotions pretty well.”

He smiled slightly.

“Merci, cherie.”

She moved so that she was sitting next to him and let her head fall back against the wall.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He hesitated. Rogue was a wild card. He didn’t know anything about her. During their battles, he had never been put against her. He kept his eyes on the opposite wall when he answered.

“I don’t know you.”

She smiled.

“No, you don’t.”

And then, after a few seconds hesitation, she added:

“Warren is an asshole. But you don’t have to worry about him. I’ll talk to Jean about him.”

“Non.”

The word slipped from his mouth before he could even think about it. Rogue glanced at him with a questioning expression and he sighed.

“I’m already enough trouble as it is. I don’t want to get between them.”

She just nodded and Remy felt relief. Maybe she understood more than he thought she did.

“Rogue?”

She made a sound to let him know that she was listening.

“Why are you doing this?”

Her forehead wrinkled in a frown.

“I’m not sure. But you are certainly something different, Remy.”

He nodded. And suddenly he realized something. They were touching. Not skin on skin, but still. Their arms and shoulders were against each other and their feet were touching. And he understood. She was touch starved. Just like he had been for so many years. People had been afraid of her, while he had been afraid of other people. Very slowly, he grabbed her hand and squeezed it. She relaxed and he noticed that she leaned a bit more heavily on him. Right in that second, Logan and Scott came into the hallway. Both stopped in shock, seeing the two mutants on the floor. Rogue looked up at them and stood up, still holding Remy’s hand. She used it to help him stand up too. He nodded slightly and she whispered:

“Thank you.”

Then she quickly went back into her room and slammed the door shut. Remy made sure that his face was calm and relaxed when he turned back to the two men. But, judging by Logan’s stare, he was unsuccessful.

Chapter Text

Remy couldn’t help but flinch when Logan started walking towards him. But then, Scott grabbed the ferals arm and pushed him back towards the stairs. After a few seconds of staring, Logan left again. Remy relaxed slightly. He knew that he couldn’t fool Logan, but he could maybe fool Scott. He smiled towards the other man, but his smile fell when he saw his raised eyebrows.

“Don’t try, Remy. I’m not stupid.”

He went closer.

“What happened here?”

Remy hesitated and Scott sighed.

“Come on. It’s alright. I won’t judge.”

Remy glanced towards the door that Warren had disappeared behind and understanding appeared on Scott’s face.

“Warren?”

He nodded slowly.

“Oui.”

“What did he do to you?”

Before he managed to answer, the door opened and Warren stepped out. His eyes widened slightly when he noticed Scott’s face.

“Scott? What’s going on?”

Cyclops frowned.

“Why don’t you tell me?”

Warren looked over to Remy and hate appeared on his face.

“What did that rat tell you?”

“Nothing. He didn’t manage to tell me anything.”

Scott’s voice was rising but, before he started screaming, he turned towards Remy and said in a calmer voice.

“Remy. Go shower. It’s the third door to the left. Don’t lock the door. I’ll put the clothes for you on the cabinet.”

Remy nodded quickly and hurried into the bathroom. A few seconds after he got in there and closed the door, the voices outside turned into angry screams. He shook all over. Not out of fear, but because of guilt. Scott was arguing with Warren because of him. He looked over to the sink and noticed a shaving razor on it. Almost without thinking, he picked it up and quickly got the blade out. He looked at it for a long moment. It had been a while since he last did it. But now, he felt a strong need to do it again. Moving slowly, he shrugged the hoodie off and threw it on the floor. Then he pulled his shirt off too. He looked down at his bare chest. The old scars from Creed’s claws were still there. Even with his quickened healing factor, he couldn’t get rid of them. The infection had been too bad. He picked up the blade and sat down on the floor, with his back against the bathtub. Slowly, he put the blade to his wrist and dragged it across it. Blood came out immediately and he sighed when he felt the sting. It had been so long. His head cleared and everything around him silenced. He dragged the blade across his wrist again and again and again. His hand moved automatically and, after a few wounds, he stopped thinking about what he was doing. He just kept going. Everything was so quiet. So calm. He felt no emotions from the others. So quiet. His hand slipped because of all the blood and he frowned slightly when he noticed the big wound that had suddenly appeared on his arm. Fear appeared in his mind for a second. He didn’t want to die. But then he calmed down again. He would heal. He always healed. His head was suddenly very heavy. It fell backwards and hit the side of the bathtub. He jerked slightly, his mind clearing for a moment. But then he let his eyes slip shut. He would heal. Somewhere in the distance, he heard a door open and someone shouted his name. He tried to open his eyes but couldn’t anymore. He was so tired. Taking a deep breath, he let himself slip away into the darkness.

                                                             **********

Scott was angry. He didn’t understand what had flown into Warren. To accuse Remy of being a spy. He shook his head and opened his wardrobe. Most of his clothes would not be comfortable to Remy. He looked through them all and chose a plain t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He glanced towards his sweaters but decided against it. The hoodie that Remy had gotten from Logan was much warmer. Carrying the clothes, he went over to the bathroom and knocked. Hearing no answer, he thought that Remy must be in the shower, so he opened the door. And panic hit him. What he saw was nothing he had been ready for. Remy was sitting on the floor, leaning against the bathtub. His shirt was off, and he had five long scars going across his chest. But that wasn’t what made him panic. In Remy’s right hand was a razor blade. His left arm had countless scars across it and was covered in blood. There was blood on the floor around him. His eyes were closed.

“Remy!”

The name escaped Scott’s mouth before he could even think. He dropped the clothes and rushed over to the cajun, while he started screaming in his mind. ‘Jean! Professor! Come upstairs! Now! Remy tried to commit suicide!’ Just seconds later, Kurt suddenly appeared in the bathroom, with Jean holding his hand. The telepath rushed over to his side and fell to her knees.

“Kurt go and ready the medical room. Quickly.”

The teleporter disappeared. Jean quickly grabbed the shirt that Scott had dropped and put it against the wounded arm.

“Scott. Keep pressure on this.”

She stood up and rushed over to the cabinet, only to come back seconds later with a towel. She wrapped it around Remy’s arm and turned to Logan, who had just appeared in the doorway.

“You’ll have to carry him.”

Logan shook the shock off and gently lifted the boy up. He turned his angry eyes towards Scott.

“What did you…”

But he didn’t get to continue, because Jean gently shoved him towards the door.

“You’ll get to argue later. Get him to the medial room. Now.”

The feral nodded and started running. Jean and Scott exchanged a worried glance before they followed Logan. They got to the medical room minutes later and Logan put the cajun on the bed. In the same second, the door opened and Xavier rolled inside.

“Scott. What happened?”

While Jean started to clean the wounds and stitch them up, Scott sat heavily on one of the other beds.

“I sent Remy to the bathroom and started arguing with Warren. He told me that he thinks Remy is some kind of a spy sent by Magneto and that everything that happened was just an act. He doesn’t trust Remy. I shouted at Warren and he left, saying that he needed some air. I went to my room to pick up some clothes for Remy. Then I went to the bathroom and found him.”

Before Xavier could answer, the door opened again and Rogue walked inside. She paled when she saw Remy and rushed over to the bed.

“What happened?”

Jean didn’t even react, still trying to close all of Remy’s wounds. Charles wheeled a bit closer to Rogue.

“Rogue. Why are you down here?”

She seemed to remember something, because she suddenly jerked slightly.

“Oh, yeah. I was outside when some people came. They speak like Remy and say that you called them here, professor.”

Xavier nodded quickly.

“Yes. I did. Jean. I’ll leave you to your work.”

He turned around, but didn’t get far before the door opened again and a woman with dark eyes and black dreads ran inside. She glanced over to the others before she ran to the bed that Remy was on and put her hand on his forehead. She started talking quickly in french and Jean’s eyes widened when she noticed that the biggest wound, the one she had been most worried about, closed and became a thin scar. The woman stopped talking and, seconds later, Remy’s eyes snapped open. He looked around with fear and confusion, until his eyes landed on the woman.

“Tante Mattie?”

She smiled and slapped the top of his head.

“Couillon.” (Stupid/Idiot)

He smiled softly.

“Bonjour, Tante.”

“Co faire, Remy?” (Why?)

He frowned slightly, but then seemed to remember what he had done. He shook his head and started to say that he didn’t mean to do it when her angry voice cut him in the middle of the first word.

“Dit mon la verite’!” (Tell me the truth!)

Remy sighed heavily and his next answer came in english.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would go that far. I didn't try to kill myself. I swear.”

She sat down on the edge of the bed and started stroking his hair.

“Don’t do that ever again, Remy. I was so worried when we got contacted. I had a bad feeling.”

He grabbed her hand, lifted it up to his mouth and kissed it.

“I’m sorry, Tante.”

His eyes were fighting to stay open and the woman smiled.

“Go to sleep, child.”

Remy smiled at her and let his eyes close. Seconds later, he was asleep.

Chapter Text

Everyone was sitting in the living room. The newcomers were a man with long brown hair and another who looked exactly like him but younger. The old woman, Tante Mattie, was on another couch. Next to her sat a beautiful girl. Her long hair was blonde and slightly curly. Her blue eyes were looking around with curiosity and slight worry. Rogue walked inside the room as the last person and sat down next to Logan. The professor leaned forward a bit.

“I would like to welcome you to Xavier’s institute for gifted youngsters. It would be good if you could tell everyone who you are.”

The older man nodded and spoke up with a heavy cajun accent.

“I’m Jean-Luc LeBeau. Remy’s father. This is Henri, his brother. Tante Mattie is a family friend and very close to Remy. Belladonna is…”

He stopped and glanced over to the girl. She smiled softly and took over.

“I’m Belladonna Bordeaux. I was going to marry Remy before my brother destroyed everything.”

And, seeing many confused faces, she opened her mouth to explain, but was stopped by Logan.

“Don’t. Remy told me everything and I don’t think it’s right to let everyone know things that he would like to keep as a secret.”

Warren turned to him with an angry glare.

“Don’t you think we should know as much as possible about him, for when he flips on us?”

Henri flew up from his seat, but was pulled down again by Jean-Luc. They exchanged looks, before the older man sighed.

“I understand your mistrust in Remy. I really do. Especially considering his past and the people he associated with. But he is a good person. And he is loyal, once someone gains his trust.”

Warren made a disbelieving sound.

“Yeah. Sure. He’s a street rat and a spy.”

Suddenly, Rogue stood up, marched over to Warren and slapped him. Everyone froze in shock. Her green eyes were glaring at him.

“Don’t you dare saying things like that about him! You know nothing!”

He flew to his feet.

“And you do?! You’ve never even spoke to him!”

“I did speak to him! After you left, I stayed with him! I was there to calm him down!”

Logan sighed, stood up and put himself between the two mutants.

“Alright. Calm down. Both of you. And if you want to fight, do it outside.”

Slowly, Warren sat down. Rogue glared at him for another few seconds, before she too sat down. Logan turned to Charles, who nodded at him.

“I’m gonna go see how the cajun is doing. With his accelerated healing, he might be awake soon.”

And he left. Moving quickly, he made his way down to the medical room. As soon as he opened the door, he was met with a pair of tired, red and black eyes. He stopped just inside the door, in case Remy was still confused about where he was. The cajun smiled softly.

“It’s alright.”

The feral nodded and walked further inside.

“Close the door?”

Remy nodded. Logan closed the door behind him and sat down next to the bed.

“How are you feeling?”

Remy lifted his hands up and showed his wrists. The bandages that Jean had wrapped around them had been taken off and first now did Logan notice that the wounds were almost completely healed. He frowned at the boy.

“How fast is your healing factor?”

The cajun shrugged.

“Don’t know. When Creed got me in those tunnels, I almost bled out. I managed to get myself to a hospital and get stitched up. That was most probably the only thing that saved my life.”

“And do you know why you have it?”

Remy frowned.

“Have what?”

“The healing factor. What else do you think?”

Logan’s voice was slightly irritated and Remy smirked at that.

“I don’t know. My good looks?”

The feral huffed in irritation and smacked Remy’s arm. The cajun’s smile grew bigger. But then he got serious again.

“What is tante Mattie doing here?”

Logan shrugged.

“Chuck called them here. Said that it would be good for you to have them here and that we could maybe find out a bit more about you. I managed to stop your girl from telling them anything. Didn’t think you would want them to find out that way.”

Pure confusion appeared in Remy’s eyes.

“Them? My girl? Who…? Oh. Bella. Bella is here.”

For a long moment it was quiet. Then, Logan frowned.

“You don’t sound happy about that.”

Remy shook his head quickly.

“Non. It’s not that. But… I haven’t seen her in quite some time. I don’t know how she will react.”

“She seemed to be quite happy to finally have found you. And worried.”

There was a knock on the door and it opened slightly to reveal Rogue.

“Mind if I come in? I couldn’t stay up there or I would have thrown Warren out the window. Not that old LeBeau or his son are any better. No offense Remy, but your family is quite horrible.”

Remy’s eyes widened for a moment before he closed them with a deep sigh.

“Jean-Luc is here? And Henri?”

Rogue nodded. She closed the door behind her and walked over to the bed. Seeing that there were no other chairs anywhere close, she jumped up onto the bed and almost landed on Remy’s legs. His eyes snapped open and he tried to look offended, but the smile on his face ruined it. The girl made herself comfortable and relaxed.

“Yeah. They came here with Belladonna and Mattie. The women I have no problems with, but the men… Let’s just say I’m not exactly a fan of them.”

Remy shook his head.

“You shouldn’t be. The only reason I still treat Jean-Luc like my father is that he didn’t kill me when he had the chance. It wouldn’t have been hard back then. But he let me live and even gave me a better life for some time. Until I found out that he was only out after my powers that is. Having a mutant who could help him fight the other guild would give him an advantage. Maybe he thought the other mutants from New Orleans would join his side when they saw me. I don’t know. I never had a chance to ask him. Once I slipped, he banished me.”

Logan frowned.

“But, you said that he banished you because he knew that it would be dangerous for you to stay in Louisiana. That he did it to protect you.”

For almost an entire minute, Remy was silent. When he spoke up again, his voice was strained.

“That’s the version I tell people who ask. The real reason was different. I wasn’t supposed to use my charging power anywhere where the other guild would be able to see it. It was supposed to be our secret weapon. When I charged the knife that hit Julien, I did it before a lot of people. Including the leader of the Assassins. There was no coming back from that. Jean-Luc lost his element of surprise and I wasn’t needed. That’s why he banished me. He would maybe even have killed me but I don’t think he knew how. My healing factor always freaked him out.”

The older man nodded.

“Yeah. About that. How does that fit in with your other mutations?”

He was shocked with what the boy had told him about Jean-Luc, but he decided to let it go for now. He had noticed that giving Remy room between the tough questions seemed to make it more likely to get an answer. The cajun frowned.

“I’m not sure. Sinis…”

He stopped and turned to Rogue with wide eyes. The girl was frowning at him.

“Did you say Sinister?”

He seemed to hesitate, before he nodded slowly. Logan smiled. He was glad that the cajun felt safe enough to admit what he had done, to Rogue. Now he just hoped that she would act right. Meanwhile, Rogue seemed to battle with herself. In the end, she smiled softly.

“Sugar, I don’t judge you. But I have a feeling that you and I are going to have a very long talk once you get better. Now, go on. Finish what you were going to say.”

He seemed to be shocked, but started talking nonetheless.

“Sinister tried to look into it. One day he said that he might have an answer but I would not like it. He never talked about it again. And I didn’t push. I wasn’t that stupid.”

Logan was halfway through a nod, when an odd though struck him. It made him halt in the middle of the move. He frowned at Remy, before standing up quickly.

“I need to go and talk with Hank about something. No one other than Jean and maybe Scott should come down here so you don’t have to worry about visitors. I think, taking our guests into consideration, it would be best if you two stayed here.”

He waited until both mutants nodded, before walking out of the room. In the hallway, he leaned heavily against the wall. It couldn’t be true. And yet. There were some similarities. Not many, but they were there. He sighed, before he headed upstairs. He needed to find Hank. Quickly.

Chapter Text

The first place he went to was the living room where the meeting had been held. But it was empty so he continued on to the kitchen. There he found Jean, Scott and Ororo sitting with tea and coffee. They looked up when he walked in and Jean frowned.

“Is everything alright? How is Remy?”

He huffed out a breath and shrugged.

“He’s still shook up, but he’s healing. Rogue is with him now so he’ll be alright. Where is Hank? And where are the cajuns?”

“Professor took them up to his office to talk. They were getting on everyone’s nerves. Even Warrens and he is definitely not a Remy fan. Hank said he’ll go to his laboratory. He needed to calm down.”

Logan raised his eyebrows at Scott.

“It went that bad?”

“Worse. They are insufferable. Maybe not Belladonna and Mattie. But those two men. I don’t even have words for them.”

Logan felt irritation raise up inside him. He sincerely hoped that the professor would not insist on reuniting Remy with his adopted family. Because he knew that if the old LeBeau said the wrong thing, there would be nothing that could stop him from kicking his ass.

“Remy isn’t exactly happy to know they are here either.”

Jean looked at him with worry but he just shook his head. He didn’t have time to talk now. He needed to find Hank.

“I’ll explain more later. I need to talk to Hank.”

And he left. All the way down to Hanks lab, he was thinking about his suspicions. Could it be true? How had it happened? He walked into the lab without knocking and was met with Hank’s slightly irritated glare. But it changed into worry when he saw the conflicted expression he was wearing.

“Is something wrong?”

Logan flopped down into one of the chairs and sighed.

“I need to talk to you. And I need for what we say here to stay strictly between the two of us. Not even Chuck can know.”

Hank seemed surprised by that, but he nodded and sat down in another chair.

“Of course. I’m a doctor. The doctor-patient confidentiality exists and, unless it’s something that threatens someone’s life, I will not tell anyone.”

Logan took a deep breath.

“It’s about Remy.”

Instantly, worry appeared in his eyes.

“Has something happened?”

Logan shook his head quickly.

“No. He’s alright. Rogue is with him now, so he won’t try anything. Not that I expect him to. It’s something different. But I need to make sure that you will absolutely not tell anyone.”

Hank looked almost offended.

“Of course I will not tell anyone if you don’t want me to.”

They sat in silence for almost an entire minute, Hank just letting Logan collect his thoughts.

“Remy served under Sinister.”

Hank’s eyes widened with shock.

“What?!”

Logan nodded.

“Yeah. I won’t go into detail, but I can tell you that he was pretty much forced into it. It’s not something he would have chosen for himself. Trust me on that.”

Very slowly, Hank nodded.

“Did he… Was he a part of the massacre?”

Logan hesitated. Was that too much? Could he really say that much about it?

“Yes. He tried to back out then. I’m not going to tell you too much. He wouldn’t have liked that. But there is something we need to talk about. I asked him about his real parents today. He said that Sinister had looked into it and told him that he wouldn’t like the answer. So Remy let it go.  But it got me thinking. He has a healing factor. A quick healing factor. He is a powerful empath. He has the agility that I haven’t seen in many people. His eyes are light sensitive and he sees in the dark.”

Hank let his head fall forwards.

“You think he is related to a feral?”

“I think he is Creed’s kid.”

Hank’s head snapped up and his eyes became double as big.

“What?! You’re joking, right?!”

Logan shook his head.

“No. From what I’ve understood, Remy and Creed hate each other. Or at least, Remy hates Creed. Sinister wouldn’t be wrong when he said that Remy wouldn’t like that.”

The blue mutant stood up and started pacing.

“Would that even be possible? Do you know of any girlfriend he had? Any girl he stayed around for some longer time?”

Logan looked at him with shock.

“You’re kidding, right? What girl would have even survived with him long enough to get pregnant? From what I remember about him, he was never interested in sex. Every time a woman got interested in him, he would act as if he wanted her, take her somewhere and kill her. He was never interested in them. I’m not sure how that would have worked, but maybe there was someone that managed to survive him.”

“And what do you want me to do, Logan? It’s not like I can contact Sinister and ask him about this.”

Logan rolled his eyes.

“No. But you do have Victor’s DNA, right?”

Hank nodded, understanding appearing in his eyes.

“Yes. I can compare their DNA to see if they are related. I’ve actually developed a new technique that will give me the results in around six hours.”

He walked over to some of the machines he had in one of the corners and Logan stood up.

“I’ll go check on him. Call me up when you have the results.”

Hank just nodded, already lost in his own thoughts. Logan started walking towards the kitchen, wanting to pick some food up for Remy and Rogue, when he heard Xavier in his head. ‘Logan. Would you mind coming down to the medical bay? I took Jean-Luc and the others down here and Remy got very distressed.’ Moving quicker than ever before, he turned around and rushed down the stairs, ignoring the elevator completely. He was down in just a few seconds and slowed down first when he was right outside the medical bay. He took a deep breath, needing to calm down his own emotions so that Remy would have something to anchor on if he needed it. He opened the door and was immediately assaulted by panic. But, just seconds later, the panic disappeared. He looked at Remy’s big eyes and hesitated. How was he going to deal with this? Rogue was standing a few steps away from the bed and it was clear that she was scared, but whether it was her own fear or Remys, he didn’t know. After a few seconds, he decided to approach the boy the same way he would approach a wounded animal. After all, if his theory was right, Remy was part feral. He kept his body language neutral while he stepped closer and closer to the bed. Remy was starting to breathe more and more heavily and his panic hit him once again. He stopped.

“Remy. I won’t hurt you.”

Behind him, Jean-Luc snorted.

“He’s playing. He can do that. Fool you with those powers of his.”

This time he felt anger and he knew that it was his own. With one swift move, he turned around and grabbed the old cajun by his throat. Behind him, Remy whimpered, most probably sensing his anger. He noticed Xavier shifting his chair a bit closer and he growled, feeling satisfaction at the fear he saw in Jean-Luc’s eyes.

“Listen, you piece of shit. You better get your ass out of this mansion before I decide to throw you out. Because if I have to do that, I will do it from one of the upstairs windows. And never come close to Remy again. Do you understand?”

The man looked like he wanted to say something, but Henri stepped in quickly.

“We understand. Just let him go and we’ll leave.”

Logan squeezed his fist a bit harder before letting the man go. Acting quickly, Henri grabbed his father and pulled him out of the room. Logan turned then towards the women but, seeing that they were not a threat, he turned back to Remy. His eyes were open wide and he was shaking. For a second, Logan was surprised by that, but then he understood. The boy was unstable, which made him more open to their feelings. It turned his empathy against him. Which meant that he had just taken the full force of a feral’s anger onto himself. He tried to calm down and saw that the calmer he got, the calmer the boy looked. Very slowly, Rogue walked over to the bed and sat down. She put a hand on his shoulder and Logan saw with surprise that Remy seemed to relax slightly.

“Remy.”

Red and black eyes looked up at him.

“Are you alright?”

He nodded and leaned a bit more towards Rogue. She gave the feral a small smile and he turned to the two females, seeing that she had Remy under control. The old woman smirked at him.

“I see. Take good care of my boy.”

Then she smiled at Remy and turned to the blonde girl.

“I’ll wait for you outside, Bella.”

The girl nodded and then turned to Remy. Moving as carefully as she could, she passed Logan and gently sat down on the bed. Remy looked up at her and tried to smile. She raised her hand and put it on his cheek.

“I’m sorry, Remy. But we both knew it would never work between us. We didn’t love each other. We loved the idea of each other. The idea of rebellion.”

He nodded slowly.

“I know, Belle. I’m sorry too. I hope you find happiness.”

She smiled with tears in her eyes.

“I promise that you will be the first one to find out. And I hope you’ll tell me if you find your happiness.”

Her eyes lifted up to the hand Rogue had on his shoulder and then back to his face. Remy rolled his eyes.

“Not for some time. I’m not in the right state to enter a relationship, Belle. But you’ll know when I do.”

She stood up and smiled at him again.

“Take care of yourself.”

He nodded.

“You too. And take care of Tante Mattie.”

Belladonna nodded and quickly left. Xavier, seeing that all their guests were gone, turned to Logan who just growled. ‘I’m not going to apologize, Charles. You don’t know what I know. And next time you decide to do something to ‘help’ Remy, you better ask me first.’ He was slightly shocked himself about his thoughts. But he had gotten close to the boy. And, if his suspicions were right, Remy was his family. He had to take care of him. And that was when he realized something. The protectiveness he had felt for the boy could be caused by just that. The animal in him recognizing a part of his pack. He looked up at the boy and noticed that Remy was staring at him. Xavier sighed and turned his chair towards the door.

“Logan. Would you mind coming with me? I need to talk to you.”

And he left. Logan rolled his eyes.

“I’ll be back later with some food. Behave you two.”

Rogue grinned at him, while Remy just nodded. With one last look at them, he left.

Chapter Text

Rogue squeezed Remy’s shoulder and he turned around to face her.

“You alright?”

He sighed and nodded.

“Oui. The scars should have disappeared by now.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Not what I meant. But fine. You wanna go back to your room? Or eat?”

Remy looked around and felt a slight shiver go through his body when he saw some of the medical equipment on the other side of it.

“My room. I can wait until Logan comes with food.”

She nodded again and stood up. But then she realized that there was a problem. Remy was shirtless. And the corridors were cold. She started looking around and frowned when she didn’t see anything he could wear.

“Wait here for me. I’ll be back soon.”

And she left, leaving a stunned Remy alone. He stood up slowly and walked over to one of the tables. A sad smile appeared on his face when he saw all the equipment. Most of those things had been used on him before. More than once. He picked up one of the scalpels and froze when he heard the door open behind him in that exact moment. Very slowly, he turned around, the scalpel still in his hand. Scott was standing in the door, a look of worry on his face.

“Remy?”

His voice was careful and Remy realized how this must look. And, thinking back to the last thing he remembered, he realized that it was Scott’s voice he heard just before he passed out. Moving quickly, he put the scalpel away and started shaking his head.

“Non. I wasn’t going to do it. I swear.”

Then he tilted his head slightly.

“You found me?”

Scott nodded and finally closed the door behind him.

“Yeah. And I don’t want that to happen again.”

Remy sighed and walked back to the bed. He sat down and pointed towards the chair that was closest. Scott walked over there and sat down.

“I’m sorry.”

Scott sighed.

“Was it because of Warren?”

Remy started to shake his head almost frantically.

“Non! Non.”

Scott frowned and leaned forward a bit.

“Remy. Listen to me carefully. If anyone here makes you feel bad, you need to tell someone. Don’t worry about making us argue with each other. The way Warren is treating you is not right. He seems to have some kind of personal vendetta against you. Not that I understand why. The only people he ever really hated that way, were some mutant murderers who captured him once and almost ripped his wings off.”

The cajun looked slightly sick.

“Did he ever say who they were?”

Scott nodded, clearly not realizing what was going on with the boy.

“Yeah. He didn’t get any names, but he said that one of them was partly a machine. The other one could shoot his own bones from his body. And then there was a woman who could make some kind of energy waves. Warren managed to get away from them, but he’s been different since then.”

Remy closed his eyes, understanding dawning upon him. That was why Warren hated him. One of the Marauders must’ve mentioned him when they caught the winged mutant. But why hadn’t he reacted before? Was it possible that they had used his real name? That would explain it. The X-Men hadn’t known his name before they took him in.

“Remy? What’s wrong?”

He looked up at Scott. Could he trust him that much? Could he tell him? Jean and Logan had accepted him. He was still a bit unsure about Rogue, but she seemed to be alright with him. But Scott was the leader out in the field. He was the one standing directly under Xavier in ranks. He had to think about others. He had to eliminate the threat. And Remy would be a threat if he told him the truth.

“It’s nothing. I’m just feeling a bit sick. I think it’s from not eating today.”

Scott seemed to relax slightly.

“Oh. Do you want me to get you something?”

Remy shook his head, feeling relief. He had managed to get away from the dangerous territory without raising any suspicion.

“Non. Logan said he’ll get something. But thank you.”

Scott nodded. They sat in silence for a few minutes, until the door opened again and Rogue walked inside. She was carrying a black shirt and the black and red hoodie, and Remy smiled.

“Am I interrupting?”

Scott shook his head.

“No. I was just leaving.”

And he hurried out of the room. Rogue frowned after him.

“Alright…”

She stretched the clothes over to Remy who put them on quickly. He relaxed when he buried himself into the warmth of the hoodie and went as far as to pull the hood up over his head. Rogue smirked at him and he shrugged.

“Don’t judge.”

She shook her head and pointed towards the door.

“Come on. Let’s get you to your room. We can put on the heater and maybe play something.”

Remy nodded and followed the girl out of the room.

                                                                      ********

Logan was following Xavier through the corridors and frowned when he noticed that he was being led to the professor’s office. They got inside and he sat down on the chair before Xavier could say anything.

“What is it?”

The telepath sighed.

“I understand that Jean-Luc wasn’t acting right towards Remy, but you can’t threaten people whenever you want.”

Logan raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah. Right. Because getting into someone’s head to get information about him is the right thing to do.”

The professor actually looked a bit guilty and Logan felt slight satisfaction. He knew that he was the only one in the mansion who could call Xavier out when he had done something wrong. None of the others would have done it.

“I need to make sure that my students won’t get hurt.”

Logan rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, that’s crap. The only students here are Kurt and Kitty. And they can both take care of themselves. You don’t trust the cajun. And I understand you.”

Xavier looked at him with a frown. He was a bit shocked that Logan had said that, considering how he had been protecting Remy.

“Yeah. I do. He makes people feel unnerved. Especially since he’s such an enigma. But prying into his past like that and not giving him the option to tell you himself, will just make him even worse. Especially taking into consideration his past which you know everything about.”

The professor shook his head.

“I agree that I made a mistake. And that is why I asked you to come here. I would like to talk to Remy, but he was extremely worried when he was alone with me so I let him go before I could really talk to him. So, the next time I talk to him, I would like for you to be there.”

Logan looked at him for a long moment, before he nodded.

“Yeah. That would work. But you can’t push him too much, Chuck. He has been through much and I’m afraid that he could snap.”

Xavier sighed quietly.

“I think he already did. We were talking about me being a telepath and he snapped. He told me to tell the truth and I did. I couldn’t stop myself.”

Logan leaned forward with a frown on his face.

“What? How? He’s an empath not a telepath.”

“My thoughts exactly. I asked him about it and he told me that he has some kind of charm that can make people do whatever he wants.”

The feral leaned back again and took a deep breath.

“Damn. That kid is more and more interesting by the minute.”

Xavier nodded.

“Yes, he is. Alright, you can go now. Get him something to eat. I’ll call you two when I want to talk to him.”

Logan stood up and left without another word. The kid could manipulate people. Who would he have gotten that from? His healing must’ve came from Victor. And the fact that he was an empath could come from a feral too since they had much stronger emotions. Logan himself could see in the dark, so that would explain the boy’s night vision. But where did that manipulation come from. Was it possible that Victor had gotten together with another mutant? A telepath? Or someone who could manipulate others without telepathy. He shook his head to get rid of the thoughts. He needed to go get some food for Remy. Halfway to the kitchen, he heard Xavier’s voice in his head. ‘Hank is asking everyone to come down to the living room. He says that this is extremely important. Oh, Rogue, would you mind telling Remy?’ He frowned. Had Hank found something? He glanced at the clock. It had been only thirty minutes since he had given him the task to test Remy’s DNA. Was it possible that he had gotten the results so quickly?

Chapter Text

Remy relaxed slightly as he felt the room getting warmer and warmer. He was going to propose a game of go fish when he noticed that Rogue was frowning. She nodded suddenly and turned to him.

“The professor wants us to come down to the living room. He said that Hank has something important to say.”

Remy sighed heavily and stood up again.

“Just as I was getting warm.”

He grabbed the hoodie, put it on and pulled the hood up again. Rogue smiled at him and opened the room.

“We can leave the heater on. It should be warm when we get back.”

He nodded and followed her downstairs. Warren, Scott, Jean and Xavier were already there. Remy tensed up when he noticed the winged mutant and Rogue frowned when she saw that. Acting quickly, she pulled Remy along to the loveseat that was furthest away from Warren and pushed him down. Then she sat down and pulled her feet up so that they were resting in his lap. He frowned at her, but she just smirked, so he rolled his eyes and started massaging her feet. Right in that moment, Kitty and Kurt appeared and quickly sat down on the couch. Kitty frowned at the two mutants on the loveseat, but one glare from Rogue made her look away. Seconds later, the door opened and Ororo walked inside, followed by Logan. The feral smiled when he noticed Remy and Rogue. It was nice to see someone who wasn’t afraid of touching the girl. He sat down next to Jean and looked around. Scott, seeing that they were all gathered, turned to Xavier.

“Where is Hank?”

The professor shrugged.

“I do not know. He asked me to gather everyone here.”

Right then, the door opened and Hank hurried inside. He was clearly stressed. Remy tilted his head slightly. He didn’t know if he should interfere but, on the other side, his nervousness would just keep messing with his senses. And maybe he could make them like him if he showed them that he could be useful. Very slowly, he tapped into the feral’s feelings and calmed him down. Hank turned to him with wide eyes, before he smiled.

“Thank you, Remy.”

Then he walked over to the other side of the room so that he could see everyone at the same time.

“There is something important I need to talk to you all about. You all know that I’ve been researching into quicker DNA matching. I’ve put two DNA samples into my machine today and got a result much quicker than I expected it. I decided that I needed to tell this in front of everyone, since this is concerning two of you.”

He took a deep breath and Remy noticed that he was getting stressed again so he calmed him down once again. Hank sent him a thankful glance before he continued.

“Logan came to me today with a very serious suspicion. Maybe you’d like to tell the others yourself.”

Logan tensed up when everyone’s attention shifted over to him, but still he nodded.

“Yeah. It has to do with Remy.”

Warren rolled his eyes, while Remy froze. His hand, which had moved up to Rogue’s ankle, tightened slightly.

“I was curious as to who his biological parents are. I connected his mutations as being very similar to a feral. And I got a thought that maybe Remy was Victor Creed’s son.”

All the blood drained from Remy’s face. It couldn’t be true. Although that would actually make sense. Sinister saying that he wouldn’t like the truth. The way Creed was always hovering over him. The way the feral never killed him, even though he had so many chances to do it. It made sense, but still he shook his head. It was too terrible to be true. He felt Rogue shift slightly so that her hand grabbed his wrist. That was when he realized that he had tightened his hand around her ankle to the point where he was clearly causing her pain. He let go of her and she grabbed his hand, moving her thumb over the back of it. It wasn’t much, but he managed to concentrate on it enough to look around. And he felt nervousness when he noticed that everyone was staring at him. Logan made a sound in the back of his throat and it pulled everyone’s attention back to him.

“With that in mind, I asked Hank to check Remy’s DNA against Victor’s. And I guess he got some results since he’s here.”

Everyone turned back to Hank, who nodded.

“Yes. I got results. But… It’s nothing I expected. And, before I say anything more, I need to ask this. Logan, do you know if Victor Creed has any other family alive?”

Logan frowned and shook his head.

“Not that I know of. Every time Victor and I fight or meet somewhere, he always talks about the two of us. No one else.”

Hank nodded again and sighed heavily.

“As I thought.”

He paused again and scratched the back of his head.

“I don’t really know how to say this.”

By now, everyone was looking at him with curiosity. Even Warren had lost his irritated expression.

“Just spit it out.”

Jean and Ororo glared at Logan, but he just ignored them. Meanwhile, the blue doctor had collected himself slightly.

“Alright. I ran the two DNA’s and found that they did not match as father and son.”

Remy released a breath he hadn’t even known he had been holding. But Hank wasn’t done yet.

“But there was a match that told me that Remy and Victor Creed are in fact related. That’s why I asked if you know about someone else from his family who is alive.”

Logan was frowning, while Remy had frozen once again.

“No I don’t. Far as I know, everyone is dead. I pinned Victor once and made him tell me about our past. He said that our parents are dead. And…”

Then he stopped and his eyes widened.

“Wait a second. Does that mean that…”

Hank nodded while the other X-Men were, one by one, realizing what the blue mutant was saying.

“Yes. That would mean that Remy is your son. I don’t have your DNA so I couldn’t check that but we can make paternity tests later to be completely sure.”

Logan looked over to Remy. Was that why he had felt so protective? Was it possible? But who…?

“Kayla.”

Everyone turned to him. Jean tilted her head and asked softly:

“Who is that?”

Logan sighed and concentrated on a spot on the carpet. Meanwhile, Rogue was doing her best to keep Remy grounded with the movement of her thumb over his hand.

“During one of our fights, Victor mentioned someone named Kayla. I managed to get a place where she had lived out of him, before he left. I went there and talked to the people there. Kayla had lived there with a man who they said looked very much like me. I asked around a bit more and puzzled it together. Kayla and I were a couple. But then, one day, Victor attacked her. The same day, I disappeared from there. I must’ve thought that she was dead. But the medic there took her in and patched her up. She disappeared two weeks later. The man who saw it described her kidnapper. It was Stryker. I followed that lead and found her grave. They had killed her.”

Then he looked up at Remy with a careful expression.

“Kayla could manipulate others. Make them do what she wanted them to do.”

That seemed to confuse everyone but Remy and Xavier. The boy closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Non. That’s not true.”

Logan frowned.

“You alright?”

By now, the cajun was shaking. Thinking that Victor might have been his father was bad. But this had somehow made him feel even worse. Rogue put her feet on the ground and moved closer to him.

“Remy? Can you look at me?”

But he just shook his head. Suddenly, he bolted out of his seat and ran out of the room. Seconds after the door had shut, they all heard an explosion. Everyone rushed out to the hallway, where they saw shreds of the hoodie lying on the floor. Ororo turned towards the front door, but Logan shook his head.

“He’s still in the mansion.”

He headed towards the stairs, but stopped when Rogue grabbed his wrist.

“Let me talk to him, Logan. He could react violently if he sees you.”

And she ran upstairs. Hank frowned.

“I don’t understand this.”

Everyone turned to him.

“He was a bit distressed by the idea that Creed might be his father but he was still fairly calm. Why would he react like this to Logan?”

The faral huffed out an irritated breath before he stormed out of the mansion, running at full speed towards the woods. ‘Professor. Remy isn’t in his room. I can’t find him.’

“Remy is gone.”

Without a word everyone but Warren split up to look for the cajun.

“Warren?”

The winged mutant shook his head.

“I’m not going to go looking for him. For all I care, he can disappear and never come back.”

“Warren! He’s a human being!”

There was both shock and disappointment in Xavier’s voice and Warren rolled his eyes with a sigh.

“Alright. I’ll check the roof.”

Chapter Text

Warren walked out through the front door and sighed heavily. Why did they all trust that damned cajun that much? If he wanted to run off, why couldn’t they let him? Their lives could go back to normal if he disappeared. Still, knowing that the professor would not approve of such thoughts, he lifted from the ground and flew up to the roof. He did two laps around the mansion, before he stopped mid air. It was empty. There was no one up there and he got ready to fly down to the ground, when he heard soft crying. The sound was almost muffled and he realized that, whoever it was, they did not want to be found. Which meant that it must’ve been Remy. The winged mutant hesitated. He knew that he should be contacting one of the telepaths, but there was another side of him that didn’t want to. After a few seconds of hesitation, he landed on the roof and looked around. It looked empty, but he could still hear the crying. Letting his ears guide him, he walked over to the other side of the chimney. And he had to stop. Even with his dislike of Remy, the sight that met him was a bit hard to look at. The boy was curled up against the side of the chimney. He was in his t-shirt and was shivering violently. His eyes were wide open and tears were falling quickly. He had one of his arms curled up around himself, while his other hand was pressed against his mouth. Warren shifted his wings and the cajun looked up at him. There was pain and fear in his eyes and he was slightly surprised. He had seen the boy fight against Scott, Jean, Hank and Kurt before. And he never was scared. Even when they had first taken him in, when he seemed scared, it wasn’t such pure fear. He took a step closer and Remy’s hand fell away from his mouth.

“Just finish this.”

The whispered words made Warren stop dead in his tracks.

“Finish what?”

Remy took a calming breath and his voice was a bit more steady when he spoke up again.

“Me. Finish me. I know you want to.”

Warren’s eyes widened. Sure, he disliked the cajun and didn’t trust him, but did the boy really think that he would kill him? Just like that? Misinterpreting his look of shock, Remy shook his head.

“Non. I don’t want to fight with you. I won’t. Just finish this.”

Making a quick decision, Warren walked over to the boy. Remy’s entire body tensed up, but he didn’t move from his spot. Warren crouched down in front of him and tilted his head.

“You really think I would murder you in cold blood?”

Remy shrugged.

“They did much worse to you than you can do to me.”

Warren’s wings twitched slightly.

“Who did what to me?”

At that, Remy looked at him as if he was stupid.

“The Marauders. When they tried to rip out your wings.”

Warren paled and felt anger fill him. How did this boy know?

“How do you…?”

“I was one of them. I didn’t know about what they did to you, it must’ve been after I left, but I was the one who put them together. It’s all my fault.”

For almost three minutes, they sat in silence. Million thoughts were flying through Warren’s head. They boy had been the one to put the Marauders together. He was the reason the entire Morlock’s Massacre could even happen in the first place. And it had to mean that he had been working for Sinister. But, at the same time, there was something off about him. About the way he was acting. No one in their right mind would admit to something like that to someone who would want to kill him for it. That told him that there was something happening in the boy’s mind that made him almost suicidal. And, suddenly, he became very aware of how high up they were. Of course he was fast. But if Remy decided to blow something up and knock him out, there was a possibility that he could jump to his death. He looked up at the boy again, and noticed that Remy had pulled his knees up and buried his face in them. He was rocking back and forth and violent shivers went through his body. Warren felt sudden disbelief. Remy was younger than him. He was pretty much still a child. He had been with Magneto for a year. How young had he been when he joined Sinister? What was the reason why he did it? He felt a part of his anger fade away slowly. Very carefully he stood up, walked over to the boy and sat down next to him. Remy started to shake even more and Warren realized that he was waiting for the final blow. After slight hesitation, he put one of his wings around him and curled it so that it was covering the shaking mutant. Remy’s head snapped up and he looked at Warren with big eyes.

“Why…?”

Warren interrupted him quickly.

“I’m not going to kill you.”

Remy took a deep breath.

“But… Why not? You hate me!”

The winged mutant took a deep breath and moved a bit closer to him.

“I don’t hate you.”

“You’re lying.”

They both froze at the same time. Remy looked almost ready to get hit, while Warren was shocked by the cajun’s accusing tone.

“How do you know?”

Remy curled up even more.

“I… I can sense it.”

Warren turned his head so that he was looking out over the garden Ororo had set up. He wanted to give the boy at least some sort of privacy.

“I don’t blame you for what the Marauders did to me.”

The statement seemed to shock even Warren himself. But he decided to keep talking to keep the boy calm.

“You weren’t there. You didn’t tell them to do it.”

Remy shook his head.

“But why do you hate me then?”

Warren sighed and closed his eyes. He knew that this question would come up.

“Because the X-Men are my family. And I’m very protective of my family. I’m thankful that you saved Jean, but this could still all be a trap.”

The cajun sighed and nodded.

“I understand.”

Moving hesitantly, he moved a bit closer to Warren and buried himself further under the feathers. Warren smiled at the small sign of trust. But then he frowned when he remembered how they had ended up where they were.

“Remy?”

He felt the boy nod to show that he was listening.

“Why did you run away?”

All the tension that had disappeared from the cajun while they sat there, was now suddenly back again. He started to shake his head, only to stop when Warren spoke up.

“You can tell me the truth. Maybe it will be easier for me to trust you if we start talking with each other.”

Remy stayed tensed up for a few more seconds, before he relaxed again.

“It’s just… Thinking that Victor was my father was terrible but it would explain everything. It would explain this anger in me. I’ve done so many bad things in my life, so many bad choices. If I was Victor’s son, it would explain it all. But Logan is good. He’s an X-Man. My bad side can’t come from him. And that means that it has to come from me. It must mean that I’m bad and that I have nothing to blame it on.”

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and, almost instinctively, leaned even more into the warmth of the wing. He was now, more or less leaning on it and Warren had to put some more strength into that wing to make sure that the boy didn’t fall backwards. Meanwhile, Remy continued.

“I never knew my real parents. I though they abandoned me because of my eyes. Every time I did something bad, I used to think that it was because of them. That they must’ve been bad people and that’s the reason why I ended up like I am.”

Warren was shocked. This was not what he had been expecting from the cajun. He needed to think about this, before he took any action. But, first of all, he needed to get Remy off the roof before he decided that jumping would be a good idea. ‘Professor? Could you tell Rogue to come up to the roof? I found Remy. Don’t send Logan here.’ Not even a minute had passed, before Rogue appeared over the mansion. She landed softly next to them and Warren noticed that she was carrying Remy’s leather coat. Sensing her, Remy opened his eyes and gave her a weak smile. She smiled back and stretched her hand out to him.

“Come on, cajun. Let’s get you back to your room. You must be freezing.”

Warren was slightly surprised when he noticed how Remy didn’t even hesitate before he grabbed Rogue’s hand. She pulled him up and quickly helped him put the coat on. Then she put a hand around his waist and smirked, before lifting them both up into the air. Remy grabbed her shoulder so hard that she winced and Warren rolled his eyes.

“Rogue. I’ll get him down.”

Rogue looked at him with raised eyebrows, but she did put Remy on the roof again when she noticed how pale he had gotten. Warren lifted up and flew over to them so that he was behind Remy. He put his arms around his chest and, moving as gently as he could, lifted the cajun. This time, Remy seemed a bit calmer so, taking it as a good sign, he flew them over the edge of the building and started to lower to the ground. Rogue was next to them, almost as if she wanted to make sure that he didn’t drop the boy. With a gentle move, he put him on the ground and landed next to him.

“There you go. I’ll go inside. I need to talk to the professor.”

And he flew off again. He had much to think about.

Chapter Text

Rogue managed to get Remy to his room without running into anyone and he relaxed visibly when the heat enveloped him. She helped him over to the bed. Very slowly, he sat down and took a deep breath. Meanwhile, Rogue was pacing around the room. He felt her irritation, but something told him that trying to calm her down would only make things worse. So he waited in silence. After almost three minutes of just pacing and occasionally muttering something under her breath, Rogue sighed and turned to him. Remy tried to give her a smile, but failed miserably.

“Listen, Rogue, I…”

“No. You listen to me. Do you know how worried I was? You can’t just disappear like that!”

He felt her get more and more agitated, so he decided that he had to do something with it. Very gently, he reached out and tapped into Rogue’s feelings. He did his best to calm her down and smiled when she looked at him with surprise.

“You’re doing this?”

He nodded and patted the bed. After slight hesitation, she walked over to it and sat down. Remy grabbed her gloved hand and looked her straight in the eyes.

“Alright. Now we can talk.”

And, before she could say anything, quickly added:

“I’m sorry for just running off like that. Never meant to scare you.”

Rogue nodded.

“I know. But I really thought that you had ran away and it’s not safe for you out there. Not with Magneto being out after your head.”

At that, Remy felt sudden irritation.

“Remy can take care of himself, merci beaucoup.”

He let go of her hand and was going to stand up, when he felt slight dizziness and decided against it. Instead, he pulled out a deck of cards and started to lay out a game of solitaire on the bed. Rogue was shocked. Both by the sudden mood swing and the way the cajun had simply started to ignore her. Slowly, she moved a bit closer to him.

“I didn’t mean it that way, Remy. I know that you can fight. I was just worried. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Remy glanced up at her, before he went back to his cards. With a sigh, Rogue stood up and left, closing the door behind her.

                                                                 *************

Logan was pacing around the living room with angry growls coming out of his throat. Ororo had pretty much forced him to get back inside and told him to not leave until everything was explained. He thought about the young cajun and another growl left him. He couldn’t understand it. Yeah, the boy had seemed a bit shaken when they had laid out the theory about Victor being his father, but he had remained quite calm. So where did his reaction to the truth about Logan come from? He knew that he wasn’t the best kind of person, but it seemed that the boy felt better about being related to Creed than to him. ‘Logan. Could you come up to my office? Warren found Remy, and Rogue took him back to his room. He’s safe now, but we’d like to talk to you before you go see him.’ Logan hesitated. He wanted to talk to Remy. If he went up to Xavier, there was a possibility that they would try to stop him from doing that. But then he remembered how Remy had looked when he found out the truth and decided to give the cajun some space. Still growling, he made his way up to Xavier’s office and walked inside without knocking. Xavier was sitting behind the desk, while Warren was standing next to one of the windows. They both turned towards the feral when he walked inside.

“Logan. Please, sit down. Warren said that he has something to tell us.”

With a huff, he sat down on the chair and turned his head towards Warren.

“What?”

Xavier gave him an annoyed stare because of his tone but he didn’t react. Warren walked closer to the desk, his wings twitching nervously.

“I found Remy on the roof. He was crying. I was going to go get someone else, but he asked me to just finish him.”

Logan felt something inside him freeze and, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the horrified look on Xavier’s face. Meanwhile, Warren just continued.

“I managed to get him to talk to me and explain why he had reacted so violently to being your son. I won’t tell you exactly what he said, but I’ll tell you what I got out of it. Remy knows that he’s done bad things in his past. Before he knew about who his family is, he used to think that his parents didn’t want him because he was a mutant. He saw them as bad people and thought that his own bad side came from them. When he found out that Victor could be his father, he was scared, but it would explain why he had that darkness inside him. But being Logan’s kid freaked him out because of how good Logan is. So he ran.”

Logan was watching the winged mutant with eyes wide open. He was speechless and that was not a common occurrence. Very slowly, he organized his thoughts.

“Wait a second. Why the he… heck would anyone call ME a GOOD person?”

He stopped himself from swearing in the last second when he noticed the telepaths glare. Warren shook his head.

“That’s not my opinion. But I don’t think Remy actually knows anything about us. It’s clear that he’s been abused before. We might be the first people who have showed him any kindness. In his book, that would make us good people. People who couldn’t have done anything wrong. He might think of us as some kind of heroes.”

Xavier, seeing that Logan clearly needed some time to gather his thoughts, asked in a calm voice:

“Warren, I don’t want to make any assumptions, but what I’ve gathered from what you said is that Remy simply wanted to blame his mistakes on someone else.”

Warren shook his head.

“No. I don’t think that’s how it is. I think he’s scared of what he could do. He’s done bad things, he knows that and he will take responsibility for them once we talk to him. I’m sure of that. I don’t think it’s as much wanting to blame someone, as looking for answers. I think he’s been told before that he is evil and now he tried to figure out if that’s true.”

Suddenly, Logan stood up.

“I need to talk to him.”

Xavier tilted his head.

“Logan?”

The feral glared at him, but his glare softened when he saw pure concern on the telepath’s face.

“Calm down, Chuck. I need to explain some things to him, before he bolts out of here again.”

And he left the room heading towards the elevator. He needed to talk to the cajun. He needed to tell him everything. Meanwhile Xavier had turned to Warren with a questioning look in his eyes.

“I have to say that I’m very proud of you, Warren. For getting over your dislike of Remy. But, if I may ask, where did this change come from?”

Warren sat down in the chair Logan had abandoned and shook his head.

“I’m not sure. It’s just… He asked me to kill him, professor. And he looked so ready to die. I’ve never seen that in anyone. And I started to think about what his past must’ve been like, if he thought a request like that would be fulfilled.”

The he shrugged his shoulders and added:

“I guess I just saw him in a different light.”

Chapter Text

Remy felt Logan’s emotions just before the door to his room opened and the feral barged in. Almost on instinct, he charged the cards he was currently holding in his hand. That made Logan stop for a few seconds. But then he shook his head and closed the door. 

“We need to talk, Remy.” 

The cajun frowned. There was nothing he wanted to talk with Logan about. The feral must’ve noticed his expression, because he sighed and walked over to the bed. 

“Can I sit down?” 

Remy nodded and moved the cards out of the way, pulling the charge back into himself. Logan sat down and seemed to hesitate. 

“I… Look, I’m not good at this.” 

Remy tilted his head, his eyes holding a questioning look. 

“Warren told me and Chuck about what happened on the roof.” 

At that, Remy paled. Warren had caught him off guard and he didn’t want to admit to the way he had acted. He wasn’t suicidal. He had never been. Not when he was with Sinister, and not when he was with Magneto. Sure, he was abused and mistreated, his mental health would most probably horrify most psychiatrists. But he was never suicidal. What happened in the bathroom had been an accident. And he didn’t even think about jumping off the roof. He had just thought that it would be the last place they would look for him at. Logan tilted his head. 

“Remy? Are you alright?” 

His tone was as gentle as it could get, and Remy felt sudden irritation. 

“Don’t pretend that you care. You might not want to kill me for what happened to the Morlocks, but don’t pretend that you actually give a damn about what happens to me.” 

Logan growled softly. 

“I do care, Remy.” 

“Why?” 

The question slunk out before he could stop himself. He didn’t care what Logan thought about him. Not really. There was no way that Logan would want such a screw-up like him as his son. Victor? Sure. Victor would have been delighted. Another thing to use against him. Family. But Logan? Logan wouldn’t want it. That was why he was here, after all. To tell him that they weren’t family. It had to be it. 

“Because you’re part of my pack.” 

Remy’s eyes snapped up to him, shock clear in them. 

“What?” 

Logan sighed. 

“Listen, kid. It doesn’t matter if you are my son or Victor’s. When I first met you, and I mean really met, not just fought you out there, I felt a need to protect you. Take care of you. When I figured out that you might be Creed’s son, I started thinking that maybe the animal in me reacted to you. That it sensed family, pack, even if I didn’t really understand it back then. It doesn’t matter if you are my son, Creed’s, or just some long lost relative. You are pack.” 

Remy just stared at him for a long moment. Logan was telling the truth. Sure, his ability to sense lies was usually going a bit haywire around ferals, but he still had it. And there was not an ounce of lie in what Logan had just said. He leaned back, thoughts swirling around his head. Seeing his expression, Logan let him sit in silence. Pack. That was something Remy could understand. Victor had called him pack a few times. Usually when he got very hurt and had to stay in bed. Victor would sit next to him and growl at everyone that came too close. He even growled at Sinister once. The scientist had been mad, but hadn’t punished either of them. When Remy asked about that, he had explained that Victor saw him as his pack, and even Sinister wouldn’t get between a wild feral and his hurt pack member. After that, Remy had been paired off with Victor more and more. Sinister had made sure that they always stayed together on missions. Remy’s empathy could keep Victor in check, while Victor’s fury and possessiveness usually kept Remy away from too many injuries. Remy fed off Victor's emotions, and the feral was more rough than necessary when they trained. Especially when he found out about Remy’s accelerated healing. It had gotten much worse when they joined Magneto, the terrorist keeping them separated almost all the time. But Remy still remembered the time at Sinister’s. He knew what pack meant. He understood it, more than he understood the meaning of family. But there was one thing he didn’t understand. 

“Why would you want me as your pack? After everything I’ve done.” 

Logan sighed heavily. 

“Remy, what do you know about Victor’s past?” 

The boy shrugged. 

“He was in many wars. He loved telling us all the bloody details. One time, Vertigo actually got sick from one of his tales. Up till then, I didn’t think it was possible for her to get sick.” 

Logan nodded. 

“All those wars, all those battles. I was there too. Right next to Creed. Killing and fighting. I’m not much better than him.” 

Remy tilted his head. It was clear from his expression that he didn’t understand. 

“But you’re an X-Man.” 

“And you think that magically makes me a hero? A good person? Kid, I’ve done more bad in my life than you could imagine. So if you want someone to blame for all the bad you’ve done, you can blame me.” 

Remy shook his head. 

“I don’t… I don’t blame anyone. I just want to understand. There has been this anger in me. Ever since I was a small child. I mean, what six year old thinks about killing someone just because they said a rude remark? That can’t be normal.” 

Logan’s eyes widened slightly. 

“No. It’s not. Not for a normal person. But for a feral? Yes. It’s normal. And you’re part feral, Remy. There is an animal inside you too. Not as strong as mine or Victor’s, but it’s there. And it reacts, even if you don’t want it to.” 

Suddenly, Remy stood up and walked over to the window. 

“I’m not a feral.” 

Logan frowned, before understanding appeared in his eyes. 

“Being a feral doesn’t mean being an animal like Victor. I might not be a good example of a well adjusted feral, but look at Hank. He’s a feral. And he’s one of the calmest people I know.” 

Remy glanced back at him, before fixing his eyes on the garden outside. It was dark, but he could still see Warren flying laps around the house. Seeing that he was shutting off, Logan stood up. 

“I’ll leave you, for now.” 

He walked over to the door, and then remembered something. 

“Chuck said that he might want to talk to you later. And he said that I should be there.” 

“No.” 

The feral frowned at him. 

“If I talk to Xavier, I want to do it alone.” 

“I thought you didn’t trust him.” 

“I don’t.” 

There was a finality in his voice and Logan nodded, not knowing what else to say. He left the room and Remy breathed out a sigh of relief. He didn’t have anything against Logan but, with the new information, he was the last person he wanted to talk to. As quietly as he could, he opened the window and climbed out. He started climbing towards the roof, but stopped when he felt a gust of wind against his back. Turning his head around, he noticed that Warren had stopped in the air behind him. The mutant looked suspicious. 

“Please tell me you’re not going up there to jump.” 

Remy shook his head. 

“I’m not suicidal.” 

Warren’s expression told him that the winged mutant didn’t believe him. 

“Really. I just… I need to talk to you.” 

Warren rolled his eyes. 

“Well, you got my attention. Want a lift up?” 

Remy hesitated, before nodding. As gently as he could, Warren grabbed him and flew them both to the roof. Remy gave him a thankful nod and then sat down on the edge. After slight hesitation, Warren sat down next to him. 

“I wanted to apologize.” 

Warren frowned at him. 

“Shouldn’t I be the one apologizing for the way I’ve treated you?” 

Remy shook his head. 

“Non. You had a good reason to not trust me. I barely trust myself lately.” 

He looked out over the calm darkness. 

“I won’t hurt anyone here. You… You’re not what I expected you to be.” 

Warren glanced at him with a questioning look. 

“What did you expect us to be?” 

Remy shrugged. 

“Magneto and Sinister didn’t exactly paint you in a good light. Especially Magneto. But being here, around you, is giving me a different look at everything.” 

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Then, Warred glanced at him again. 

“Did you talk to Logan?” 

“Oui.” 

“How did it go?” 

“Not like I had expected.” 

Warren nodded and silence fell over them again. When Remy spoke again, his voice was almost a whisper. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

Realizing that this was important for the boy, Warren nodded but didn’t say anything, not wanting to scare him away with any sound. 

“What do you really think about Xavier?” 

That question shocked him. He knew that the boy didn’t trust Xavier, but right now it almost sounded like he was scared of him. Especially with the way he was keeping his voice down, almost like he didn’t want anyone else to listen in on their conversation. 

“The professor is a good man. He makes mistakes. All of us do. But he isn’t a bad person. I know that the others will tell you that he will never try getting into your head. That’s not true. He goes into our heads when he thinks we might be a danger to others. But he would never try controlling us. Not unless it was a matter of life and death. He cares about everyone here very deeply. But that’s something you will have to figure out for yourself. I’m not like Jean. I won’t tell you that he isn’t an enemy and expect you to believe that.” 

Before Remy could answer, they heard Scott’s voice from the ground. 

“Remy! Warren! Professor is calling a meeting! There is trouble on the way!” 

Remy glanced over to Warren. 

“Should I go back to my room?” 

Warren hesitated, before shaking his head. 

“No. You’re what I would call an honorary X-Man right now. Come on. Let’s go.” 

He waited until Remy stood up, to grab him again and fly them both down to where Scott was waiting. As he landed, he saw Scott’s troubled expression. 

“What is it?” 

“Magneto. He’s coming. And he’s not alone.”

Chapter Text

Remy and Warren followed Scott into the war room, where the other X-Men were already gathered. Seeing them, Logan opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself when he saw how Remy completely ignored him. The cajun sat down between Warren and Rogue, putting one hand into the pocket of his coat. He pulled out a deck of cards and started to shuffle them. Xavier wheeled a bit closer to the table and started talking. 

“Erik and his Acolytes are on their way here. Hopefully, we will be able to settle this peacefully. If they are looking for a fight, I don’t want this to get out of hand.” 

Scott nodded. 

“Professor is right. Magneto only has three Acolytes right now. It will take him time to find new ones. Which means that they are severely outnumbered. Kitty and Kurt. I want you two to stay inside. Don’t come out, unless a fight starts. Remy. I want you to stay inside too.” 

Remy’s hands stopped shuffling the cards. His eyes widened and he sat up straighter. 

“I’m not going to stay in here. I can fight.” 

Scott shook his head. 

“I know you can fight. But Magneto is most probably coming here because of you. So it’s best if he does not see you.” 

“Because of me? You’re the ones who took me here. I didn’t ask you to do it.” 

Before the situation could escalate, Warren lifted his hand and put it on Remy’s shoulder. 

“Calm down, Remy. I’ll stay inside with you. I doubt that Magneto will try to attack us with just three henchmen, so I don’t think I will be needed.” 

Before Scott could protest, Jean nodded. 

“I agree with Warren. We won’t need everyone outside.” 

Remy looked at her with raised eyebrows, and then nodded slowly. Suddenly, Logan tilted his head and sniffed in the air. 

“They are here.” 

Scott quickly stood up, the others following his lead. Xavier was the first one out of the room, the rest of the X-Men going after him. Kurt grabbed Kitty and teleported them somewhere, leaving only Warren and Remy in the room. The winged mutant grabbed Remy’s elbow and started pulling him towards the stairs. 

“Come on. We can keep an eye on everything from upstairs.” 

Remy followed him without a word of protest. They hurried up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms that had a window out to the front yard. Warren cracked the window open so that they could hear the conversation outside. Magneto was standing on the lawn with Creed, Pyro and Colossus. Opposite from them, stood the X-Men. Xavier wheeled forward a bit. 

“Hallo, Erik.” 

Magneto twitched slightly. 

“Charles.” 

“What are you doing here?” 

The terrorist raised his eyebrows. 

“You have something of mine. Give it back, and I will leave peacefully.” 

Remy froze, and felt Warren put a hand on his shoulder. Outside, Magneto continued talking. 

“Sinister gave him to me.” 

He must’ve expected a big reaction, because he seemed shocked when there was none. Scott smirked. 

“You think we don’t know? Remy told us everything.” 

Magneto tilted his head slightly. 

“He did? Did he tell you about what happened after the Morlock tunnels? He crawled back to Sinister. Stayed with him until he was given to me.” 

A few of the X-Men froze. This was different than what they had heard. In the bedroom, Remy felt sudden anger. 

“That wasn’t like that.” 

Warren frowned at him. 

“Then how was it?” 

“I was wounded. Victor found me and dragged me back to Sinister. I didn’t want to.” 

Sudden determination appeared in his eyes and he took a deep breath. 

“I’m sorry, Warren.” 

The mutant felt his wings twitch. 

“For what?” 

Without a word, Remy spun around and hit Warren in the head. The hit was hard enough to knock him out immediately. Remy lowered him gently to the ground, making sure that his wings didn’t get pinned under him and then stood up. Moving as quickly and quietly as he could, he moved through the room and out the front door. Everyone turned to him and Magneto smirked. 

“Gambit.” 

With slow steps, Remy walked over to stand next to Xavier’s chair. 

“What do you want?” 

Magneto looked between him and Xavier, his smirk turning nasty. 

“I’m surprised you dare to stay so close to a telepath. Didn’t know you would trust him.” 

Remy shook his head. 

“I don’t trust him. But I trust you even less. Now leave.” 

Magneto huffed out an amused breath. Next to him, Victor frowned. He sniffed a few times in the air, before turning to Logan with a questioning look. He studied him for a few seconds, and then smirked and turned back to Remy. The cajun, who had seen the exchange, tilted his head. 

“How are you doing, runt?” 

Remy shrugged with one shoulder. 

“Been better, been worse.” 

“They patched you up? You took a nasty fall.” 

“Wouldn’t have happened if you controlled yourself a bit more.” 

Victor grinned. 

“That’s the spirit. Knew you still had it in you.” 

Then he turned to Magneto. 

“We should leave, boss. We’re outnumbered.” 

Magneto gave him a glare. 

“We’re not leaving, without Gambit.” 

Remy nodded slowly. 

“I guessed that.” 

With one quick move, he pulled out three cards, charged them and threw them right at Magneto. The man was thrown backwards, but managed to steady himself in the air. 

“Attack.” 

Immediately, Pyro fired a big fire blast at them. The X-Men all jumped out of the way, Jean and Ororo lifting into the air. Remy rolled skillfully under the blast and threw a few more cards. One of them hit its target and Pyro was easily knocked out when he hit a tree. Colossus charged at them and tried to punch Rogue. But the girl just grabbed his fist and and gave him a punch that sent him into the air. Well there, Ororo hit him with lightning, his metal body making him fall to the ground and stay there, twitching occasionally. To everyone’s surprise, Creed didn’t try attacking. He just stood there, watching the fight with a slight smirk. Magneto lifted his hands and metal parts from all over the garden lifted into the air. Garden knives, shovels and other tools all flew at top speed towards Remy and Xavier. The cajun quickly grabbed Xavier’s chair and pushed it with enough force to send him a few feet away from where the metal was pointing to. He himself stayed in place, just watching with a smirk on his face. Seconds before the tools hit him, he jumped into the air, stretching his arms out. Out of nowhere, Warren swooped down, grabbed his wrists and lifted him high into the air. 

“I hate you.” 

Remy grinned. 

“I know.” 

On the ground, Scott fired a blast at Magneto, at the same time that Ororo shot lightning at him. Seeing that, Remy tugged at his arm and, when Warren let go of it, pulled out a few cards, charged them and threw them at Magneto. The man managed to avoid the lightning and cards, but was once again thrown back by Scott’s blast. On the other side, Logan and Victor were staring at each other. Victor grinned at him, before turning towards Magneto and saying again: 

“We should leave.” 

Magneto glared at him, but must’ve noticed that they were not going to win, because he nodded. 

“Let’s go.” 

He grabbed Colossus’ metal body and lifted it into the air. 

“We’ll be back.” 

Creed grabbed Pyro by the neck and started pulling him along the ground, following Magneto’s retreat. As soon as they were gone, the flying mutants landed on the ground, Warren gently putting Remy on his feet before landing next to him. He slapped the back of his head with a glare. 

“You idiot.” 

But, instead of saying anything back, Remy groaned and sunk to his knees. Warren and Rogue immediately fell down next to him. 

“Remy?” 

“Sugar?” 

With slow movements, he pulled his coat to the side and a few people gasped when they noticed a garden knife sticking out of his side. 

“I…” 

With another groan, he fell backwards.

Chapter Text

Remy was protesting quietly as Rogue carried him to the infirmary, but he shut his mouth at the glare he got from Warren. The woman put him on the bed and started helping him out of his clothes, stopping first when his upper body was completely bare. Remy grinned up at her. 

“If you wanted me out of my clothes, you should’ve just asked, cherie.” 

Rogue blushed slightly, before rolling her eyes. 

“Let’s get that hole in you patched up before you start flirting, sugar.” 

“I’m multitasking.” 

He was going to say something more, but stopped with a grunt when Jean started cleaning his wound around the knife. He stayed completely still through the entire procedure of her cleaning it, giving her a questioning look when she hesitated. Now that he was laying down, he could think a bit more clearly than when he had been upright. 

“What is it?” 

“I’m going to pull the knife out, clean the wound again and stitch you up. I don’t have time to figure out what medicine you can take or to even sedate you. But I still need you to stay very still.” 

Remy nodded, letting his entire body relax and closing his eyes. He heard Warren and Rogue tell everyone to leave the room and give him some privacy, but he didn’t react to that. It was way too easy to sink back into the mindset that helped him stay sane through all the experiments Sinister had performed on him. As he felt the knife being removed, panic welled up. Pain shot through his body and his eyes opened as he had to force himself to stay still. Jean looked at him with worry but, seeing that he still hadn’t moved, continued her work. Meanwhile, Rogue had moved so that she was sitting next to the bed and grabbed his hand. He glanced at her and concentrated on her green eyes, the young woman smiling at him. 

“You’ve gotta stop worrying us like that.” 

Warren nodded as he came to stand on the other side of the bed, making sure that his wings didn’t get in Jean’s way. 

“I’m annoyed with you for knocking me out. And for worrying me.” 

Remy smirked. 

“Knew you would OW!” 

His body almost jerked as he felt the antiseptic on his wound, only being stopped by Warren putting his hands on his shoulders and holding him down. 

“Merde! Sacre bleu!” 

He felt Jean put the needle against the wound and his hand flew out to stop her. 

“Arête. Arête.” 

Jean paused her movements, looking worriedly at Remy. 

“Remy, I have to close the wound. Even with your accelerated healing, I have to do this.” 

He took a few breaths and nodded, looking up at Warren. 

“You can let go, mon ami.” 

Very slowly, Warren let go of his shoulders, but stayed ready to react in case he had to hold him down again. As gently as she could, Jean started to stitch the wound together. As soon as she was finished, Remy sighed. 

“I really wish painkillers worked on me.” 

Jean frowned. 

“They don’t?” 

He shook his head. 

“Not the normal ones. Sinister had something that could knock me out if his experiments got too much, but he never gave me anything for the pain after I woke up. Something about me burning through the medicine too quickly.” 

Warren helped him sit up and Jean quickly put bandages around his stomach. 

“The stitches will need to be removed as soon as your wound heals, but you should be good for now. How do antibiotics work on you?” 

“Penicillin works. Don’t know why, but it does. Only thing that saved me after Creed.” 

Jean glanced down at the scars across his chest, but didn’t comment on them. Instead, she walked over to one of the cabinets and pulled out a bottle. 

“Here. Take two pills now. If you’re alright with that, we’ll make tests in an hour to see how fast you’re burning through the medicine and how to dose it for you.” 

Without a complaint, Remy took the pills from her hand and swallowed them, pausing slightly when he realized that he had done it without even thinking about what she had given him. Did he really trust her that much? At the same time, he suddenly realized something. Magneto had come to get him back. And he failed. Which meant that there was a big chance he would contact Sinister to tell the scientist that Remy was on the run. And Sinister would come for him. There was no question about that. As he sensed the worry pouring from Jean, Rogue and Warren, he realized that he couldn’t stay. He couldn’t put them in any more danger than he already had. 

“I’m gonna go lay down for a while if that’s alright.” 

Jean nodded with a smile. 

“Of course.” 

He stood up and shook his head when he noticed that Rogue stood up as well. 

“Can I be alone for some time? I… I need to think.” 

The girl frowned, before nodding slowly. 

“No problem, sugar. I’ll come get you for dinner.” 

After giving her a thankful smile, he put on a black t-shirt Jean was holding out to him and walked out of the room, making sure to not project any of the pain he was feeling. He made his way up to the room, using the kinetic energy around him to avoid the others. As soon as he was in the room he had been given, he locked the door and quickly put on his coat that he had grabbed from the infirmary. After stopping and listening for a moment, but not hearing anyone near his room, he walked over to the window and opened it. The backyard was empty, everyone most probably too worried about Magneto coming back to go outside on their own. After not sensing any reaction from the rest of the house at opening the window, he slowly looked out of it, down the wall. There was a trellis on the wall under his window. He would have to drop a bit to catch it, but it was far from the hardest he had done. The wound in his side would pose an obstacle. Not a big one, but he was still worried about misjudging the climb and making too much noise. With a sigh, he climbed up on the windowsill and, after some maneuvering, was hanging by his hands out of the window. It was pulling at his wound and he bit his lip to stop himself from making any sounds. After making sure that he was in the right position, he let go of the window and let himself fall. As soon as he was parallel with the trellis, he quickly grabbed it, arresting his fall. Once again he had to stop himself from making a sound as the sudden yank sent pain through his entire body. Yeah. Doing this so soon after an injury was not a good idea. Still, he had come so far and was not going to stop now. He had to get away. He had to make sure these people, these good people who had shown him so much kindness, didn’t get hurt. As he climbed down the trellis, he did his best to keep both his emotions and his thoughts to himself. Even though telepaths couldn’t easily get into his mind, he didn’t want to risk projecting anything. He got to the ground in silence and, after feeling around again and making sure that none of the X-Men had noticed anything, he ran across the yard and into the woods that stretched behind the mansion. As soon as he was far enough in them, he stopped to catch his breath and looked down at his side, lifting up the t-shirt. The wound looked angrily red, but wasn’t bleeding so that was a win. He leaned against one of the trees, breathing heavily, before his head suddenly snapped up. There was a familiar presence coming closer to him and he would have to stay alert for this. Just seconds later, Victor Creed walked out from between the trees, a smirk on his face. 

“Runt.” 

Remy nodded slightly. 

“Victor. Magneto sent you?” 

The feral considered him for a moment, before shaking his head. 

“No. After the showdown, I left Magneto.” 

Remy felt his body tense up. 

“Sinister?” 

Creed nodded and Remy slumped heavily against the tree again. 

“What about Magneto?” 

“He’s not stupid enough to come after me now that I’m working for Sinister again. And if he is, then I wouldn’t be too sad about him getting put down a peg.” 

Remy frowned. 

“You were quite loyal to him from what I remember.” 

The feral shrugged and sat down on a log. Seeing that there was no hurry to leave, Remy sank down onto the ground, his back leaning against the tree. 

“I did what he told me, because Sinister had ordered me to keep an eye on you. The only way to do that was to do what Magneto told me to do. But I was never loyal to him.” 

Remy sighed. So that was it. Even when he had been given the ‘freedom’ to work for someone else, Sinister was still keeping tabs on him. Most probably noticing Remy’s expression, Creed shook his head. 

“I know what you’re thinking. But it’s not like that. That’s why I’m here actually.” 

“To drag me back to Sinister? Don’t worry. I was on my way back of my own free will. Well, as free as it could get in this situation.” 

The feral growled quietly. 

“We both know you don’t belong there.” 

“What other choice do I have? If I don’t go back, he’ll come here. And I can’t let him hurt any of these people.” 

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Remy just trying to gather his strength to continue going. Victor was watching him and, driven by some instinct he couldn’t really explain, Remy spoke up again. 

“Logan is my father.” 

Victor nodded. 

“I hoped you would find out.”  

Remy’s head snapped up, his eyes widening. 

“What?” 

“When she found out that she was pregnant, Kayla got worried that Stryker would be way too interested in her child. She told me about it. Not because she trusted me. No. But she knew I hated Stryker more than I hated the thought of helping her. I caused a distraction that let her get away. I thought she would go into hiding. Instead, she went to Sinister.” 

Remy swore and Creed nodded at that. 

“Yeah. Sinister was very interested in how her child could turn out. She noticed that and tried to back out. Run away. He let her. She came back to Stryker and he was furious. He had her beaten to death, cut the fetus out of her and put it in an incubator. When Sinister found out, he had me steal it and bring it to him.”

He stopped, giving Remy a few seconds to collect himself. The young man looked slightly sick, but still nodded. 

“Go on.” 

“You know that he had a son, right? Adam.” 

Remy nodded again, his voice coming out surprisingly calm when he spoke. 

“Oui. He died as a baby.” 

“Yeah. Got murdered. Sinister never got over it. He wanted to recreate him. So, when he got the fetus in the incubator, he started experimenting on it. Injected it with DNA and genes from himself, whatever he had of Adam, some of…” 

He stopped and Remy almost groaned. If even Victor Creed was hesitant to say something, then it must’ve been really bad. 

“Spit it out, Creed.” 

“He had some of Scott Summers. He added that to the mix as well.” 

This time, Remy didn’t hold back the groan. 

“So I’m created out of two X-Men, another mutant, Sinister and a dead child.” 

Creed frowned. 

“You’re taking this awfully well.” 

“It’s either that or I freak out and start blowing things up.” 

Seeing that he could hold himself calm, Creed slid down from the log and sat down on the ground, his back against it instead. 

“It makes sense though.” 

Remy just tilted his head. 

“Your powers. Eyes after Sinister. Explosions after Summers. Empathy from Jimmy being a feral. Those mind control tricks of yours after Kayla.” 

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Remy just thinking about what that meant. It made sense. That was what he hated the most. That it made sense. And, thinking about it, he knew more than ever before that he needed to leave. Even though he didn’t understand the meaning of family, he did create bonds with people. Like an animal in a pack. He had been alright with Logan being in his pack. He liked Scott, so he could be alright with him too. With Scott came Jean. He was alright with Warren. And Rogue wasn’t bad either. If he stayed in the mansion, with them, he would put them all in danger. Sinister had wanted to recreate Adam. And he would get Adam. Nothing in the world would be able to stop him.

“Why tell me all this?” 

“So you can be honest with them.” 

Victor nodded towards where the mansion was hidden by the trees. Remy frowned. 

“What?” 

“Sinister didn’t send me here to get you back. He sent me with a message. He will back off. He will make sure that Magneto doesn’t come after you. Give you time to figure yourself out. You’re free from them. You get to decide your own life from now on.” 

“Why?” 

The news were so shocking that he couldn’t get more than simple, one-worded, questions out. He felt that it was a big accomplishment that he was still keeping to english. 

“He’s a bastard. But he did care about his wife and Adam. He sees Adam in you. He will do what he can to keep you safe and happy. Especially after what he tricked you into in those tunnels.” 

He stood up heavily and groaned as his bones popped. 

“Go back home, runt. And be careful.” 

And he ran back into the forest, disappearing out of sight. With a sigh, Remy leaned his head back against the tree again and closed his eyes. He needed to think about this. He needed time.

Chapter Text

Remy woke up with a start at the sound of something landing next to him. He almost jumped into a defensive crouch, but stopped himself when he saw Warren standing next to him. 

“This is the second time you’ve put us all into a frenzy by disappearing.”

His voice was teasing and Remy relaxed against the tree again. 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” 

Warren gave him a small smile and sat down next to him, nudging Remy until the young man leaned forward and let him put his wing between him and the tree. Seeing Warren nod at him, Remy leaned back again, sighing softly when the feathers cushioned his back. 

“Logan said that Creed wouldn’t hurt you.” 

Remy frowned at him. 

“I saw you two talking when I was looking for you. Logan told me to let you two talk. He said Creed wouldn’t hurt you.” 

“He didn’t. We just talked. Sinister sent him.” 

Warren hesitated, before nodding. 

“I know. Jean snapped up Creed’s thoughts and was worried, so she showed us your conversation. I’m sorry.” 

With a deep sigh, Remy closed his eyes and leaned a bit to the side. Seeing that, Warren pulled his wing more tightly around him. 

“It’s fine. I didn’t know how to tell everyone about this.” 

“Well, it was quite a shock to everyone. Logan almost ripped the couch in half when he heard what happened to Kayla. When Scott heard about you being related to him, he got completely white and almost passed out. Hank got mad at Sinister for performing an experiment like that. Kitty was very close to throwing up. Rogue, Ororo and Jean were just furious. I think me, Kurt and the professor were the only ones who managed to stay calm.” 

“Do you want me to leave?” 

Warren turned his head towards him and frowned. 

“Why would we?” 

“Because of what I am.” 

Warren sighed heavily. 

“Look. I understand that you might feel weird after what you found out, but I need you to know that it doesn’t change anything for us. You’re still you.” 

“You’ll make me cry.” 

They both chuckled at that, and then Warren stood up, stretching one hand out towards Remy.

“Alright. Let’s get back inside.” 

He pulled him up onto his legs and put a hand around his waist. 

“You good with flying?” 

“Just don’t drop me.” 

With another chuckle, Warren lifted them straight up, dodging between the branches until he cleared the trees and was hovering over them. Remy sighed. 

“I wish I could fly.” 

Warren glanced over to him. 

“Maybe you could. I mean, you use your kinetic powers to make your cards fly around. Maybe you could use it to make yourself fly.” 

As Remy looked at him with wide eyes, he flew them back to the mansion, landing in front of the front door. It opened immediately and Jean pulled Remy into a hug. He hugged her back, smiling softly. 

“I’m sorry for running away.” 

“Don’t worry me like that ever again.” 

She pulled away from him and grabbed his hand. 

“Come on. Kitty had a great idea for us all to get to know each other better.” 

Remy glanced back at Warren and the man just shrugged. They followed Jean to the living room, where Rogue quickly got up from the couch and, when Jean moved away from him, pulled Remy into a hug. 

“You alright, sugar?” 

He nodded against her shoulder. 

“Oui. I’m fine.” 

She led him to the couch and they sat down together. Seconds later, Kitty came running into the room, carrying a tray with cups and a jug full of orange juice. 

“I went with juice so that everyone could drink it.” 

She put it all on the table and sat down next to Kurt, clearly trying to not stare at Remy. 

“Alright. So, I had this idea that we should try to have some fun and get to know each other. Who here has played Never Have I Ever?” 

Jean, Scott and Rogue raised their hands. 

“Alright. This is how it works. One person says something they have never done. If someone has done it, they have to drink. Okay?” 

Logan looked skeptical, but didn’t say anything when he noticed that Remy was pretty calm and relaxed. Jean nodded. 

“Why don’t you start, Kitty and then we’ll go around the room.” 

The girl grinned, quickly filled everyone’s cups and sat down again. 

“Alright. Never have I ever used a fake ID.” 

Logan, Remy and Rogue drank. The feral rolled his eyes. 

“Considering the fact that my real name isn’t Logan, I’m technically still using a fake ID.” 

Jean and Xavier looked like they wanted to comment on that, but stopped themselves and nodded at Kurt to show him that it was his turn. The boy thought about it for a moment, before saying slowly:

“Never have I ever… cursed in a place of worship.” 

Remy winced as he drank, but the focus was taken off of him when not only Logan, but also Scott drank as well. Jean’s eyes widened. 

“Scott?” 

The man sighed. 

“It was an accident. I was too young to understand what I was saying, until dad pulled me out of there and explained what I had done wrong.” 

Remy huffed out a breath. 

“Well, I was young too, but I knew what I was saying. I was trying to be difficult. Did not expect Jean-Luc to tell Tante Mattie. She gave me the whooping of my life. And washed my mouth with soap.” 

A few people winced in sympathy. Hank, who was sitting on the couch next to Kurt, tilted his head. 

“Um. Never have I ever gotten a tattoo.” 

Only Ororo drank at that and everyone stared at her. She shrugged. 

“It’s a small one. On my foot.” 

Hearing her slightly defensive tone, Scott quickly took his turn. 

“Never have I ever used someone else’s toothbrush. 

Before anyone could drink, Jean shook her head. 

“You’re supposed to say something you haven’t done.” 

Scott’s eyebrows rose.

“I haven’t done that.” 

“You’ve never used Alex’s toothbrush?” 

The man shrugged. 

“No. He’s used mine though.” 

With a sigh, Jean raised her cup and took a sip, smiling slightly when Scott gave her a frown. 

“What? I’ve used yours several times before.” 

Ignoring the way the two mutants were staring at each other, Remy and Kitty drank, before turning to Xavier whose turn it was. He thought for a few seconds, and then said slowly:

“Never have I ever caught my parents having sex.” 

Kitty, who had taken another sip between turns, almost choked on her drink, while Kurt and Remy looked at the professor with shock. Rogue winced and drank, shaking her head as if to try to shake off the memory. As soon as she had gotten her breathing under control, Kitty drank as well. Remy frowned. 

“Does it count if you walked in on your brother?” 

Xavier nodded, and Remy drank. Logan grinned. 

“Well, if we’re going dirty with this: Never have I ever had sex in a public place.” 

Scott and Jean glared at him as they drank. There was clearly history there but, seeing Warren’s head shaking, Kitty refrained from commenting. Remy raised his cup, frowned, seemed to think about it, and put it down again. Rogue frowned at him. 

“Anything you wanna share, sugar?” 

He shook his head, still frowning. 

“Non. I just had to think if it would count. But it doesn’t.”

Rogue nodded. 

“If you’re sure. Ororo? Your turn.” 

“Never have I ever said the wrong name in bed.” 

Remy and Xavier both drank and everyone turned with shock towards the professor. Kitty’s eyes were wide open. 

“Professor?” 

“I was young once too, Kitty.” 

Rogue bumped shoulders with Remy, but didn’t say anything. They turned towards Jean, who was next in turn, Remy frowning when he found that he had trouble concentrating on her. The woman was blurry, and her face was just a white hole. As he looked at the others, he found that everyone looked like that as well. Seconds later, he felt a flash of pain in his head and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was sitting in the woods again, right where Victor had left him. He looked around with shock, freezing when he noticed a man standing not far from him. Sinister smiled. 

“I guess I should apologize for that.” 

Remy’s instincts told him to jump up into a defensive position, but common sense told him that there was no reason to do it. He couldn’t beat Sinister. 

“What was that?” 

“A predicting dream. I wasn’t going to let you go back to them without seeing their reactions first. Not after how Grey overheard your conversation with Victor. I had to make sure they wouldn’t hurt you. So, using what I could get from their minds, I created a simulation in your dream, that would show how they would treat you now that they know.” 

They looked at each other for a moment, before Remy sighed. 

“Why?” 

“Would you like to clarify what you’re asking about?” 

“Why would you care about how they will take this? I’m not Adam.” 

Sinister sighed heavily and, to Remy’s shock, sat down on the ground. 

“I know. And I’ve long since stopped trying to force you to be him. But that does not change the fact that you are my son. Mine. Not that ferals. Not that woman’s who was ready to come to someone like me with a baby. You are mine, and I will not let you get hurt.” 

“Then how do you explain what happened in the tunnels?” 

“What happened that day had to happen. There was no other way. I feel sorry that you had to get dragged into that, and you can be certain that Victor got punished for what he did to you.” 

Remy shook his head. 

“But you don’t regret what happened to the Morlocks, do you? You’re a heartless monster that doesn’t care about anything other than what you think is important.” 

He stood up and turned away from the scientist. 

“I’m going back to the mansion. And, if you care about me as much as you say, you will leave me alone and never come close to me again.” 

And he walked off, having to force himself to not start running. At the edge of the woods he saw Warren and relaxed. Sinister had not followed him. Maybe this could work out after all.

Chapter Text

Remy was sitting on the grass in the front yard of the mansion, children running all around him. From time to time he would look up from the book he was reading and glance over to them when they ran too close to him, but didn’t do anything to stop them. On the other side of the yard, a few sun chairs had been put on the edge of the pool. Ororo, Jean and Jubilee were sitting on them, chatting about something with big smiles on their faces. Scott and Logan were arguing over the grill, the two men not being able to agree on how long the meat had to stay on the heat. Kurt had been roped into a game of tag with the children, while Kitty was splashing in the pool with them, making sure that no one drowned. The argument next to the grill stopped first when Rogue walked over to them, said a few words and then continued to the women on the sun beds, leaving Logan and Scott looking slightly chided. The sight almost made Remy smile, but he stopped himself and concentrated back on his book. He read a few lines, before frowning and picking up the dictionary. He looked up the word he didn’t understand and then went back to his book. Xavier had suggested that he learn other languages, since he seemed to be really interested in that, so, after polishing up his French, he had taken up Spanish.  It wasn’t as hard as Kitty had claimed it was, but there were words he had trouble remembering. After a few minutes, he heard a soft flapping and Warren landed next to him. He glanced up at the winged mutant and raised his eyebrows. 

“Weren’t you supposed to be helping Hank?” 

Warren flopped down next to him, making sure to not sit on his wings. Remy immediately leaned forward a bit to let the other man put the wing behind his back. Then he leaned back and sighed with content. Warren gave him a small grin and leaned back as well. 

“I was, but Piotr showed up and Hank decided he was more help with lifting things up than me.” 

He glanced at the book. 

“How is it going?” 

“Good. I still have some trouble with some things, but it’s getting better and better.” 

“What language are you doing next?” 

Remy frowned slightly. 

“Not sure. Kurt offered to help me out with German, but I’m not sure about that. I was thinking of going on a trip. Mom was Native American and I would like to learn more about her language and culture.” 

Warren looked to where Logan was staring at them, the feral clearly hearing every word that was being said, before turning back to Remy. 

“How will you know where to start?” 

It wasn’t a secret that Remy avoided Logan as much as possible. Just as he often avoided Scott. In the first case, the feral had tried getting close to him, but stopped after Remy had been startled once and almost threw a charged knife at him. The act had made Logan finally back off and stop trying to establish any connection with Remy. In the other case, Scott had clearly not known how to deal with the fact that Remy could, technically, be classed as his son, and that had made avoiding him very easy for the young man. His relationship with Xavier was still slightly strained, but that was mostly because Remy was still unsure about how to act around a telepath. Ororo and him were getting along fine, both slightly cautious in their talks. They were both thieves. It was an instinct to be cautious around each other. Kitty and Kurt had accepted Remy easy enough and he didn’t have any problems with them, the three of them sometimes gathering the older students for game nights. Jean was sometimes allowed close to Remy, other times his paranoia would kick in and he would need to be away from her and her telepathic abilities. She understood it and was always ready to give him space when he needed it. 

“I talked with Victor. He agreed to find and get some of the files that Stryker had on mom. And he told me exactly where she lived before he got her to work for  Stryker. So I have some information to work with. I want to see if someone from her family is still alive.”

“Should we be worried that Creed is just coming here whenever he wants to?” 

Remy shook his head. 

“Non. He’ll only come here when I ask him to. Other than that, I meet with him in the bar. So don’t worry.” 

Warren nodded at that and Remy smiled at the show of trust from the winged mutant. 

“When are you leaving?” 

“As soon as I talk to Rogue.” 

Warren’s eyebrows shot up and he turned fully towards Remy, making sure that his wing didn’t move. 

“You gonna do it?” 

Remy rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah. I was going to wait until you make a move first, but I’ll go gray before you gather your courage.” 

Warren got red on the face and glanced over to where Betsy was sitting a bit away from the other women and reading. Most probably snapping up Warren’s thoughts about her, the woman looked up and turned her head towards them. She smiled at Remy and he smiled back. She was the newest addition to the X-Men and most of them were still wary about her. But, to everyone’s surprise, her and Remy had almost immediately gotten along, spending long hours together in the library, whispering with their heads close to each other. Seeing his smile, Betsy stood up and walked over to them, Warren getting even more red and jerking so violently that his wing was ripped out from behind Remy’s back, causing the young man to fall onto the grass. Both him and Betsy, who had by now reached them, started laughing, Warren closing his eyes in embarrassment. After helping him back into a sitting position, Betsy sat down next to Remy and put her head on his shoulder, his cheek immediately resting on her hair. It was a show of affection that everyone was used to seeing and had stopped being surprised over. Betsy was the only telepath he fully trusted and the only telepath who he always allowed to get into his head. 

“I don’t know. I think Warren would look quite dashing in gray hair.” 

With a groan, Warren fell backwards, his wings flopping dramatically to the sides. Betsy laughed at that. Wanting to spare him some embarrassment, Remy started talking again. 

“I’m going to tell Rogue how I feel about her and tell her to think about if she wants to go forth and have a relationship with me or not. When I come back from my trip, I hope she will have an answer.” 

Betsy snorted. 

“I told him it’s a stupid idea. He should take her with him on the trip, have fun, spend some time with her outside of this mansion, and then ask her. But he’s a stubborn one.” 

Remy rolled his eyes. 

“Tell you what. You and Warren go on a date tonight, and I’ll go with your advice and ask Rogue to come with me.” 

With a smirk, Betsy pulled away from him and leaned towards where Warren was still on his back. 

“Pick me up at 9. There is a new restaurant in town I have wanted to check out for some time. Remy, sweetheart. You’ll have to help me with my hair if I’m going to be ready in time.” 

After a few seconds, Remy recovered from his shock and sprung to his feet, stretching a hand out towards the woman. She grabbed it and let him help her to her feet. Standing there hand in hand, they looked down at Warren, who was still on his back, his eyes wide open in shock. Remy tilted his head. 

“Did we break him?” 

Betsy reached out with her telepathy and, after a few seconds, shook her head. 

“He’ll be fine. Now. It’s pretty warm, so I’m thinking of a light dress. I’ve been dying to use the red one again.” 

As they walked towards the mansion, Remy shook his head. 

“No. It’s pretty, but it’s not right. What about that green one?” 

“It’s slightly too short for a first date, don’t you think?” 

“You’ve got a point. What about the blue? The one with one strap.” 

Betsy nodded. 

“That one could work.” 

She gently prodded him and they both glanced over to where Rogue was watching them from her sun chair. Remy gave her a grin and she smiled back, before turning back to Ororo. 

“Think Warren will get mad if we make it into a double date?” 

Betsy gave him a fond smile and let go of his hand. 

“I’ll wait for you in my room. Go get her, kitten.” 

With an eye-roll, Remy started jogging away from her and towards Rogue. As he got closer and closer to her, a smile appeared on his face. This was the start of something good.