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Chapters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
 
 
 

The Companion Picture - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Dandelion
Last updated: 12/03/2009 06:26:08 PM

Chapter 5

"You're doing it again." Remy looked up from his plate to find Magnus' cool blue eyes meet his. "Doin' what?"

Magnus waved a hand. "Getting all sullen and introspective."

Remy cocked an eyebrow with a grin. "You ever hear the one 'bout the pot an' the kettle?"

Magnus smiled and took a bite of his dinner. This had long since become a ritual between them when one or the other started dwelling too much within himself. <Still,> he looked up at Remy again. Remy was fast falling into his funk again. <Perhaps the time has come for us to open those wounds. Couldn't hurt.>

He ordered another round of drinks and then sat back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. "You're thinking about her again aren't you?" The stress he put on the word 'her' left no doubt as to who Magnus was referring to.

"What if I am?" Remy's defensive tone was there on cue.

Magnus shrugged. "She's not here. You don't know where she is, why bother wasting your time?" Every word was calculated. If he could get Remy angry enough to start talking it would go much easier.

Remy didn't disappoint. His eyes flashed.

"It don't work that way."

"Oh. I see." Magnus nodded to the waiter as he set the drinks down. "How does it work, hmm? The longer we've been on this trip the more reserved you've become. You'd flirt with anything in a skirt at the beginning. Once we hit DC you seemed to be a bit more picky. We reach North Carolina, you may as well be a hermit."

Remy scowled darkly into his drink. He wasn't sure what annoyed him more, the fact that Magnus was right, the fact that he had called him on it, or the fact that he didn't seem to care.

"I don't remember Rogue. I remember glimpses of her. But I couldn't tell you anything about her."

"The sad thing, Lensherr, is dat I couldn't tell you much about her, either."

"Really." Magnus couldn't say he was too surprised. Remy had a habit of being tight-lipped.

Remy lapsed into silence again, but this time Magnus let it go. He could read his friend pretty well and he could see that Remy was chewing on a few thoughts. A few thoughts that would eventually find their way out.

"Tell me, Lensherr, out of what you remember, what's been your greatest loss?"

Magnus looked at his friend and could see where this conversation was going. He smiled within himself at his success. "There are so many, LeBeau. The death camps spring to mind. I lost my family there. But so many others did, as well. I would say, that my biggest losses were Magda and Anya."

Remy didn't reply, so Magnus continued.

"Magda was my wife." He looked up at the ceiling remembering. "She was beautiful. Gentle. An angel." He smiled at the memory. "We had a daughter. A beautiful little girl and we named her Anya."

Magnus let the memories consume him for a moment. The joy at seeing his daughter after she was born. The love he felt for his wife. The feeling that they had so much ahead of them.

"But it was all taken away. One tends to get tired of being stepped on by those with an overblown sense of authority. I didn't use my powers, until I had to. When I did, they came to strike back. Anya was consumed by the fire, I was unable to reach her, and no one else bothered."

Magnus' face darkened as if a great cloud had cast its shadow upon him. "So I killed them all. I took away their hopes and dreams and desires as surely as they had taken mine. Magda was appalled. Her spirit was so gentle and full of light. How could she bear to see what she had married, the monster she had lived with all this time? I watched her shatter. I tried to get her to come back to me. She never did. She died not long after that and she was lost to me forever."

Magnus looked up at Remy then, expecting to see the looks of condemnation that he saw whenever anyone found out about his bloody beginnings. He expected the revulsion, the righteous indignation. Remy only looked sympathetic. As if he knew all too well what a boy with anger and power could do and the damage it would cause to the rest of his life.

"You're lucky you had a family, even if it was just for a little while." Remy said quietly. "You at least have the mem'ries of what it was like before."

"I suppose." Magnus thought about that. "Small consolation, though. My family may have been torn from me, in Auschwitz I hadn't a choice and there was precious little I could have done then anyway. I wonder, sometimes, if I could have made a difference having had my powers then."

"Don't torture yourself wit' 'could haves', Lensherr. It ain't worth it." Remy took a drink.

"You ever hear the one about the pot and the kettle?"

A grin peeked out from Remy's otherwise downcast expression.

"Well, now it's your turn, LeBeau. What's your greatest loss?"

Remy thought in silence for a minute or two. Then held up two fingers. "You had Magda and Anya. I got Sinister and Rogue."

Magnus leaned back and waited for Remy's story to come out.

"My biggest fault has always been my arrogance. I's always thinkin' I could do anythin', get away wit' anythin', and always, always come out on top." Remy took another drink. "Pride comes before a fall. An' I've had plenty a'both." He shook his head. "A kid will do just 'bout anything to be the top dog, y'know? An' I's just an orphan havin' to prove to everyone, most of all myself, dat I deserved bein' the big man's boy."

"How do you mean?" Magnus asked, slightly confused.

"The leader of the T'ieves Guild found me an' took me in when I's just a pup. He was real good to me, gave me a home and a family. But I knew they weren't mine. An' so did ev'rybody else. I had a bundle of pride even way back then. Livin' on the streets gives you a real convoluted sense of what's right and wrong. An' an even more twisted vision of what's important. A boy can't live wit' ev'rybody lookin' down their noses at 'im. I's the best damned t'ief that ever was. No matter. I's still a nothin', a nobody, an' worst of all, a charity case."

Magnus looked all too familiar with being considered beneath others.

"An' if a boy can't live wit' it, a man sure can't. After I took off, I came across a man called Essex. An' he gave me exactly what I was lookin' for, a chance to flex my muscles. A chance to show people I wasn't a charity case." Remy's face drained of color at the memories. He placed a hand over his eyes. "I destroyed people. I twisted them inside and out. I never went so far as to kill anyone, 'cause dat would've been kind. I set them all up. I set them up for the devil. And no doubt, Essex was exactly dat. I seen him later. I seen him, cause he's been involved wit' the X-men. Dey call him Sinister. A more fitting name I couldn't t'ink of."

For a moment, Remy sat there in his darkness, biting his lip and remembering every miserable moment of his time with Essex.

"And when Rogue kissed me, and got some of my mem'ries. She only saw a little bit. Enough to be so afraid she started runnin', and she hasn't stopped. Jus' like me. All that darkness. All the work I done wit' the X-men, hoping I's makin' a difference, didn't mean a damned t'ing. I'm still a kid tryin' to prove somethin' and makin' all the wrong decisions."

Magnus sat and waited for Remy to make the next move. Remy took his hands away from his eyes and reached for his drink. His face grimaced trying to keep emotions held in check. Magnus looked at his friend and felt the shame emanating from him. Magnus felt the pain, too, because he remembered the shame himself.

Remy looked at Magnus and to his surprise saw the same thing Magnus had seen in Remy after his story. Sympathy. Nothing more, nothing less. It was the sympathy of someone who had suffered in a similar fashion. Remy fingered his napkin quietly, feeling he had to express his doubts to someone before they ate him up inside.

"I t'ink Sinister wants me to kill the X-men."

Magnus looked surprised at that one. "I've tried that." He said after a moment. "They don't kill easy."

"The kid in me, the one who wants to show everyone, doesn't care. They look down on me, the same way ev'ryone else does. The fact dat I was there 'cause a'Stormy. It was like I's bein' adopted into the T'ieves Guild all over again. There but for the grace of Storm go I." He shook his head. "I wonder, am I ever gonna get outta

dat yoke?"

"You said the kid in you." Magnus remarked. "What about the man?"

"The man wouldn't kill the X-men for a king's ransom. Whether or not they may see me as some poor relation, the fact is dat I grew more under them den anywhere else." Remy ran his fingers through his hair. "I fought wit'em, suffered wit'em. I been targeted wit'em, too. I paid my dues an' I don't want to see all dat go to waste. The t'ing is, what if I don't got a choice in the matter? What if Sinister twisted me inside, too?"

"I don't know, LeBeau." Magnus said thoughtfully. "I guess the thing to do would be to fix the problem before it starts."

"I don't have a clue as to how to do dat." Remy looked despondent. "Maybe if I jus' stay away from 'em, den I can't do anyt'ing, right?"

Magnus looked at his friend. "It's a temporary solution at best. It'll do for now. But sooner or later, LeBeau, you have got to face the devil again. And you'd do far better to have a few aces up your sleeves."

With the painful memories out in the open the two mutants decided to dull the aches with a few rounds of stiff drinks. An hour later, the pair were well on their way to alcoholic oblivion.

Remy looked at Magnus and smiled. "What a pair we are. You ever hear of the walkin' wounded?"

Magnus shook his head, a smile creeping across his face. "You ever hear the one about misery loves company?"

"You kiddin'?" Remy looked shocked. "We are it!"

Magnus ordered another round of drinks. "I say we take the day off tomorrow. We've been goin' non-stop since Westchester and I want a break."

"Sounds good t'me." Remy sized up his drink, a few bourbons under his belt and he was feeling pretty good about everything.

"We've got a two room suite in one of the finest hotels in the area." Magnus admired the surrounding dining room. "I say we enjoy it for a while. Do we have deadlines?"

"No." Remy dove for the next drink that was set on the table.

"Do we have appointments to keep?"

"No!"

"Do we have any reason to keep the breakneck pace we've been goin' at?"

"NO!" Remy's volume surprised both of them. Remy grinned and raised his glass in a silent toast.

"All right then. Tomorrow we aren't going anywhere unless we really feel like it." Magnus eyes his own drink. He was feeling a little bleary, himself and he wasn't sure if Remy was swaying or if it was himself.

Remy noticed a wicked gleam in Magnus' eyes. "Hey! Hey! Hey! No manipulating the iron in your bloodstream to make you sober. S'cheating."

Magnus looked wounded. "I don't even know if that works."

"You were gonna try it. You do somethin' like dat, I ain't drinkin' wit' you anymore."

"Ha!" Magnus downed his drink and stood up a little unsteadily. "I'm retiring for the night."

Remy thought that his friend's attempt at sobriety was extremely amusing and leered at him to show it.

"LeBeau, you are retiring as well." Magnus eyed the distance to the elevator and all of the obstacles between it and their table. "Because I need someone to hold me up."

"Oh, well, sure. Anythin' to help a friend in ne--" Remy seemed to get cut off right in the middle of his sentence, when his chair seemed to pop out from under him and the floor decided to introduce itself to his face.

Magnus, holding onto the table very firmly, peeked around and took great pleasure in watching Remy scramble to his feet with all the grace of a toddler.

"I'm all right! I'm all right!" He held his arms out to balance himself. "Okay, okay. Lensherr give me your hand."

"Which one?"

"I don' care which one! Jus' give me one!!" Magnus reached one hand out and Remy grabbed it and placed it firmly on his shoulder. "Okay, now, you hold me up, and we'll get back to our room."

"Ha! Again!" Magnus curled his arm around Remy's neck. "You're holding me up. How d'you like that?"

"You're so juvenile." Remy growled.

"I consider myself learned." Magnus grinned again.

"You really need to be shorter for this to work." Remy muttered heading very cautiously towards the elevator.

"You need to be taller." Magnus replied stubbornly.

With great determination and even greater luck the two very inebriated friends reached the elevator and their suite with a minimum amount of destruction left in their wake.

The suite was a welcome site and Remy couldn't wait to get to his great big comfortable bed and leave everything else behind.

"Here," Magnus pressed the 'Do Not Disturb' sign into Remy's hands. "You put this on the door. Your aim is better."

"I couldn't find the elevator button!" Remy protested.

"And I pressed every floor except ours on the way up." Magnus trudged to his room.

Remy hung the sign on the door. "Too bad it don't got a time limit." He mumbled to himself. "I'd put Do Not Disturb...Ever."

 

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