Remy Etienne LeBeau (_gumbo) wrote in tomorrowtoday, @ 2013-08-03 13:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | avalanche, gambit |
Log: Happy to Oblige
Characters: Dominik and Remy
NPCs: --
Location: Starts with a phone call and continues in the Stark School medical basement level, Manhattan NY, NY
Timeline: 7/27/13 4am [backdated to a week ago whaaaat]
Description: Remy calls Dom and convinces him to bring ice cream, a smoke (gasp), and some company down to the infirmary.
Rating: PG-13
*Ring Ring*
Remy was alert. It was four o'clock in the morning and he knew any sane person would be deep asleep with sweet dreams or nightmares entertaining them, but the Cajun was awake and restless and in dire need of a cigarette. Ever since receiving the box from Shaw, he had been on edge, unable to sleep well unless drug aided, and he felt open and exposed in the medlab of the school, like Sebastian was going to crawl out of the shadows at him.
*Ring Ring*
He was calling Dominik. Of all the people he could have chosen, it was Dominik who Remy turned to at this hour of the morning. Their first meeting, way back in Westchester, had been over a smoke. Remy knew he could count on Dominik to bring him one. And Dom had proven himself, twice at the least, to be someone Gambit could trust. He needed someone like that around, someone like that in his life. Especially right now, at 4am when shadows moved and his brother was silent on the other end of his emails.
*Ring Ring*
“Pick up, Rarity,” Remy muttered, eyes drifting to the black box. He needed to rethink asking a healer for that enormous favor of making him whole again. He needed to be able to work for Shaw. And he really really needed a smoke. Remy hadn’t had a cigarette since the night of the fall. Seven days. Remy had always been one to say he could stop whenever he felt like it, but the need for a smoke wasn’t helping his nerves. Dominik would understand. And maybe, if Remy talked his game right, he’d convince Avalanche to bring him one.
---
Remy was lucky, Dominik didn't sleep much or when he did it was light at best. So when the phone started to ring he fumbled first it, long fingers grasping it a second later and eyes narrowing at the displayed number.
A quick look at his room-mate had Dominik clambering out of bed on nothing but his underwear, hurrying to the bathroom before he finally answered the call. He didn't bother with the light because that would just hurt his eyes.
"This better be important, " he muttered, voice rough with sleep as a hand rubbed at his face before it disappeared into the long hair not controlled by gel at this time in the morning.
---
“Sunshine!” Remy greeted in an all too bright and cheerful tone. He chuckled and tried to hide the relief from his voice, “It’s important, it’s important. Remy wouldn’t be calling you if it wasn’t, non? Know you gotta get your beauty rest and all dat.” Remy chuckled and tugged at the clean and sterile sheets he’d grown accustomed to. Accustomed to disliking. Not because they were changed daily by the medical staff and that he had to move and be reminded of his immobility still, even a week later, every time he sat up, but Remy disliked them because they weren’t his jacket. His jacket was somewhere else. Off with Rogue. Not with him. And as much as he tried not to admit to himself that he didn’t need it to sleep better, like some kid with a blankie, he knew he would if he had it. Damn that girl.
What goes around comes around, though. Anna Marie Raven would get hers once he checked out to leave. Which might be sooner rather than later if he could live with another debt.
“You know what sounds great at dis hour, mon ami?”
---
Dominik yawned before rolling his eyes at the mention of beauty sleep. He momentarily drifted off because it was ass 'o' clock in the morning after all until he realised Remy had asked him a question.
"I dunno, " he said gruffly. "What sounds great this time in the morning?"
A quick look into the room reassured Dominik that he hadn't woken Victor by taking this call.
---
Remy tried not to sound too amused by the gruff sleepy tone in Dominik’s voice. He felt bad, somewhere inside, for waking him. But Dominik was the only one he would wake at this hour. A testament of trust, even if Avalanche only saw it as a petty annoyance. “Chocolate ice cream,” Gambit answered, “What else? Tink dey got any up dere in de land of de living you ken bring Remy?” His voice changed to a softer, almost pleading tone. Ice cream did sound nice, but really he just wanted to get Dominik down there, preferably with a smoke. And Remy wasn’t ever one to simply ask direct questions or give direct answers. The thief always took the roundabout way with riddles and skirting the real issue.
“‘Sides,” he reasoned before Dominik could protest, “De birds and de bees get up at dis hour. Day is starting, cher.” He smirked.
---
Dominik's eyebrow lifted. "Chocolate ice-cream? Seriously?" He had half a mind to ask Remy if he was pregnant, but that was physically impossible and conjured up images that Dominik didn't think he wanted to envision at this time in the morning.
He let loose with a rough laugh, sleep heavy and gruffer than it was normally. "I dunno, man. I can think of other things that sound good at this time in the morning. Like sleep, sex, cigarettes or alcohol." A slight pause. "Sleep, did I mention sleep?"
He leaned back against the side and winced as he knocked the tap on, hurrying to brace the phone between his bare shoulder and ear as he quickly turned the running water off.
---
Remy’s smile grew, especially at Dominik’s sleepy laugh, “Why don’t you pick two and bring dem down? Got my heart set on ice cream, but would settle for a cigarette. Already figure Remy can’t convince you to bring him some whiskey.” He snorted, stretching his legs and settling his broken arm once more against his side. “Or hell, sex sounds good too.” Any of those things, really, besides sleeping since he couldn’t get there right then, would help take the edge off the craving for a smoke. The steady and solid company of Dominik, the same one who had seen him through that rough night after he’d been in Haroun’s room for the last time, would help him get grounded again. Help him cope through healing and getting past the pressure of Shaw’s threat.
“Usually an order to dem tings, ain’t dere?” he teased lightly. Remy heard the water come on, but didn’t comment, remembering that Dominik had a roommate and guessing he’d taken the call to the bathroom to keep from disturbing the other boy.
---
Dominik snorted at Remy's teasing. "Glad to hear you're feeling better that your sense of humour is back." He rubbed at his hair once he had switched the water off. "And I'll take your word on that, Remy."
Did he seriously want ice-cream? And why call him and not Rogue she who had appointed herself guardian?
"Fine," He bit out gruffly. "Ice-cream and cigarettes I can do." The sex part however that was better left unmentioned because teasing was no fun for anyone. "I just need to put some clothes on first. You've caught me in my underwear."
-
“Take my word dat sex is good, or dat list you named comes in an order?” Remy continued to tease in a light voice. “Pretend like you ain’t aware, Rarity. I wasn’t born yesterday.” But he showed mercy, changing the topic when Dominik agreed to bring the top two things on his own list. “Hot damn, knew I could count on you. Been craving a smoke something fierce. You understand.” Smoking in a medical bay wasn’t the most considerate or healthy thing to do, but he was willing to risk it.
“You gotta stop dat, mon ami.” he warned. “Being so reliable, I mean. You ken wear just your underwear anytime you want.”
---
“And then what will you do?” Dominik threw back. “Without old reliable?” Jesus, way to make yourself sound... uninteresting, Dominik. Thankfully inner thoughts were exactly that, inner thoughts. No more of that bullshit truth thing. He strayed out of the bathroom in search of clothing but his voice was more hushed than it had been a second ago, being considerate of his sleeping roommate. “And I think wandering around in my underwear would cause a few weird looks.”
He tugged on a pair of jeans then his fingers sought out a nearby tanktop, tugging that on and following it with a hooded sweatshirt. Dominik didn’t bother with his hair, it was a mess and there was no way he had time or the inclination to tame it. Not this time. On went a pair of flip flops and soon his hand snatched up his smokes along with his lighter.
“Anything else you want?”
---
"Good question. What would I do?" Remy chuckled.
"Cigarettes and ice cream with your company and I think I'll be set." He paused a moment, unsure if there was anything else he could or should ask Dominik to bring. "Tanks, ami. For doin dis." His voice was sincere and lacking any of the teasing he'd had before. Remy opened his mouth to say more, to explain more of why he was grateful and the reasons, but he just smiled. "Be seeing you soon, oui?"
---
"Yeah, yeah," Dominik gruffed down the phone before the call ended and he was leaving his room in search of chocolate ice-cream for the Cajun with a craving.
The Stark kitchen was easy for Dominik to find considering he'd spent a lot of time in it. A rummage in the freezer had Avalanche procuring the ice-cream and a search in a nearby drawer secured a spoon.
A long stride had him covering the ground between kitchen and the infirmary and Dominik soon appeared, sleep ruffled and hair pretty much everywhere unlike its normal styled state.
"So," he began, voice deep and thick with post sleep haze. "Of all the things you could want at this time you wanted ice-cream, chocolate ice-cream at that."
Dominik shook his head and offered up both ice-cream and spoon. "You're lucky I like you."
---
Remy had cards arrayed on his lap when Dominik arrived, a game of solitaire set up on the white sheets and carefully stacked within easy reach of his one good arm. The fingers of his other arm held a card between the knuckles, but the rest of the limb was suspended in a cast and a sling to keep it bent and against his side to avoid injuring his shoulder more with any careless movements. But solitaire was a game that could be played with not just one player, but one arm, even if it was too simple to hold Remy’s attention for long. Domink had arrived just in time.
The Cajun mutant’s dark eyes with their eerie red centers lifted when Avalanche arrived at his own private curtained area where there was a small light on, the other lights in the large room kept dim for sleeping, but the bedside light was enough for Remy to see by, and enough to notice the sleepy sexy details of Dominik’s appearance as he came into the area. A smile touched Remy’s lips and he leaned back against his pillows where he was propped upright to get a nice long look at the arriving teen.
“Well hey, ain’t you a sight.” He held his hand out, beckoning with his fingers for Dom to come in closer, and to take the bowl of ice cream, before he smirked, “And you don’t look so bad yourself, Rarity.” Teasing was Remy’s default mode lately as he used it both as a coping mechanism and as a way to break the ice with people who might otherwise be grumpy at 4 in the morning. He eyed the bowl of ice cream, but frowned at Dominik in all his disarrayed state, “Didn’t bring one for yourself, homme. Not an ice cream in de morning kind of guy? Chocolate ice cream is de only kind worth having. At any hour. And I promise Remy knows how lucky he is, having someone like you around.”
Gambit’s glance at Avalanche wasn’t just teasing, but it was with some of the same sincerity as his voice had held over the phone. He put the spoon in his mouth and shifted slightly on the bed with a concentrated look on his face to make room to settle the bowl beside him on the sheets, spilling some cards off his knee from the game.
---
Dominik's fingers latched around a nearby chair and he pulled it closer to the bed figuring if he was going to keep Remy company he might as well be comfortable whilst doing it. "Uh, not so much. It is four am after all." He soon lifted his shoulders. "Besides if I want some I'll just borrow your spoon." Wouldn't be weird or anything considering Remy had kissed him in the past. Dominik wasn’t exactly squirmy when it came to sharing saliva, especially if in effect it had already happened.
He watched as Remy appeared to struggle at which point Dominik rolled his eyes, abandoning his pursuit of a chair and reaching for the bowl so Remy didn't have to fight with it. "I think you just ruined your game," Avalanche remarked as he looked at Remy through dark displaced strands of hair.
It was good to see Remy smiling and having enough levity to joke around because Dominik had never really seen this side to the Cajun much, but that was understandable considering the recent events. It was promising though, real promising.
"And for the record nobody looks good first thing after getting out of bed." He soon smirked. "Not that I don't appreciate the compliment."
---
"Oh, dis game was no match for me, see. Had it in de bag." Remy smirked and nodded his thanks to Dom for taking the bowl as he resettled, a little breathy from the effort, but he used the spoon to point at Dominik, not thinking twice about sharing it with the other boy. Or sharing germs, because, hell, he hadn't thought twice before. But sharing ice cream, that was a different matter. "If you ken get past my defenses, now." He teased and chuckled.
"Nobody? Really?" The comment made Gambit pause and watch him curiously. "One of my favorite ways to see people. Says a lot about a person, de way dey look, fresh outta de sheets." He bit his lip and smirked, snatching the bowl back from Dominik to scoop up a spoonful of the ice cream.
---
Dominik covered his yawn with a hand before he slumped back into the chair, stretching his long legs out and folding his arm across his chest when it was obvious Remy didn’t need him to hold the bowl.
“And I know I’m going to regret asking this, but... what does my current appearance tell you about me?” Dominik unfolded an arm and pushed a hand through his hair, dragging the uncontrolled strands of hair back as he gave a slow languid stretch.
---
Remy narrowed his devil eyes and let the ice cream melt in his mouth before he answered, eyeing Dominik more closely, "If you gonna regret it, den I ain't sharing." He shrugged and took another bite, looking past Dom to the door for any sign of the staff. They weren't usually lurking at this hour, which would make smoking easier. But there was always the risk. Gambit wasn't keen on being disrespectful to them, given how much they had helped him. But goddammit he needed a smoke. And getting out of bed was out. He'd already tried.
But Dominik's stretch, that was something that caught his eye. Remy really wondered if the boy knew how attractive he was. He didn't think for a second that Dom really believed no one looked good first thing out of bed. Not when Domink also believed 4am was a good time for sex, smoking, and sleeping.
"Hn." He grunted, shaking his head and giving the chocolate ice cream a stir.
---
"Well, that's no fun," Dominik muttered with a roll of his grey eyes. "But hey your choice." He rummaged in a pocket, pulled out the pack of cigarettes along with his lighter. "Judging by your twitching I'm guessing you're wanting one of these." He didn't even phrase it as a question more a statement of fact. His eyes lifted to regard the Cajun whose eyes remained an intrigue to Dominik and offered a smirk.
Dominik eased a cigarette between his lips, flicked his lighter then cupped a hand around the flame until the end caught. Cue a hollowing of his cheeks which was sinful in nature before the cigarette glowed red and Dominik passed it to Remy, blowing smoke to one side as he did.
The Avalanche then helped himself to one.
"So aside from a craving for ice-cream and cigarettes, what else is keeping you awake at four am? "
---
“Regrets never are fun.” Remy responded lightly, though his words might be heavy if phrased in a different light. But he kept his tone teasing and casual, especially when Dominik’s rummaging produced the object he most wanted and needed at that hour to calm his nerves.
“Oui...” Gambit nodded at the cigarette, a half smile on his lips as he watched the boy light it, the tip a glowing match for Remy’s eyes when he did pass it over. “Merci,” he responded in his best ‘proper’ French accent, the smile turning to a smirk at the gesture. Something about Dominik lighting the cigarette for him, when he was capable of doing so himself both with or without the lighter, or a second working arm, was sweet. And kind of a turn on. Haroun hadn’t smoked, he was too smart for that, but smoking was what Remy and Dominik had shared from the beginning. So Remy put the spoon in the bowl and reached out to accept the cigarette, meeting Dominik’s look briefly over the glowing ember.
The Cajun put the cigarette between his lips and leaned back, settling into his pillows with his good arm placed behind his head, eyes closed and head tipped back as he drew in a breath of smoke. Fucking hell, he had missed this.
Without looking, Remy just shrugged, talking as the breath eased the sweet smoke from his lungs, “Just restless, cher. It’s been a week. Been stuck in dis room for a week and Remy got shit to do.” Gambit moved his hand from behind his head to pluck the cigarette from his lips and looked at it, rolling it between his bare fingertips and licking his lips to savor even more the taste. He flicked his eyes over to the black box from Shaw, then to Dominik, “I been thinking... Dey said dere’s a boy here who ken heal anyting. Everyting. Dat kid, Josh Foley, who got mixed up wit dem Friends of Humanity people a while back and leaked a video of Laura attacking Jeanne-Marie to save his own face. Dat was de start of de protesters at Xavier’s. You wasn’t here den, I don’t tink. Foley came clean in de end, but... Damage was done.” Gambit shrugged and shook his head, drawing another breath of smoke as he looked at the gift box, the warning, once more.
“I been tinking of asking him to heal me.” He said at last, eyes straight ahead, then shifting to Dom. He didn’t go into how big he was on debts and repaying them or why. He just wanted Dominik’s honest opinion. Everyone made mistakes. That didn’t mean he should turn aside an easy way out of his own sticky situation, did it? But to be indebted to someone like Josh who had put himself before others - especially when those others had been Remy’s friends - it didn’t sit well with the Cajun. It also didn’t sit well with him to have his brother at the risk of being hurt by Shaw or one of Shaw’s contacts, and Remy would gladly take a risk with Josh to alleviate that worry. But first, he had to hear what Dominik thought. Dominik, the rock.
---
Dominik watched the way Remy savoured the cigarette and thought it was not too dissimilar to the feeling you got right after sex, that satisfied tingle in your limbs and the slow but all consuming sense of everything being right in the world and just... good. It suited the Cajun, but for some reason that didn't surprise Dominik.
He himself sat back into the chair, linking his feet at the ankle before taking a drag from his own cancer stick as his mother called them. The smoke lingered for as long as it took for Remy to explain Josh's less than illustrious past before he pushed it out slow, the wisps curling around his features and touching his ears.
The surprise was evident as at no point had Josh mentioned any of that to Dominik, but to be fair to the golden mutant their brief sojourn hadn't really been about talk but more about a physical compatibility which had been mutually beneficial for both of them. It had been good and fun whilst it lasted, but then soured at the revelation that Josh was attached to somebody. Dominik still felt guilty to this day eventhough he'd gone into it blind. The troubled mind was all too evident in that darker than normal grey gaze. The same gaze which had locked with Remy's when he'd mentioned Josh's name.
"I suppose it depends," Dominik began as he leaned forward to snag a cardboard kidney with those long fingers of his before flicking his ash into it. "On what he wants in return for the service." What if like Selene he would want something ridiculous in exchange? Dominik worried the edge of his lower lip with his teeth. "But his power is pretty unique and would solve you being stuck in here. It all comes down to the price."
---
Remy sat up a little, turning to his side and ignoring the way the room still shifted and it took a moment for his sore ribs to adjust to the new position, but he looked more closely at Dominik, wanting to pierce through those gray eyes and see why they had grown troubled. "De price is it, exactly." Dominik had hit the nail on the head. But why?
"You know him?" Remy talked around the cigarette between his lips, holding it there lightly with his teeth before he took another pull. He had all of his attention focused on Dominik now.
---
Dominik had been the focus of Remy's attention in the past but this time it felt different more intense or maybe or was just him given how sensitive he got when Josh's name came up.
"Yeah, you could say that." Avalanche took a further drag then rubbed his fingers over his exposed bit of collarbone. "We uh.. sort of had a thing a while back. Like before you and I got talking." Why he felt the need to clarify he had no idea, best not to analyse it for too long.
---
"A 'ting', huh?" Remy smirked. He'd heard the rumors about Josh and knew what Dominik must mean, so he didn't mercilessly press for more information. But it did raise other questions, "What happened?"
Remy swiped his hand over his mouth and picked the cigarette free, letting the smoke out in a stream up to the ceiling. There would be no hiding the smell when the staff arrived. But god, it was worth it. Gambit could feel it working on his nerves, even if it was just in his head. He continued to give Dominik his attention, shifting the cold bowl at his side, cigarette between scarred knuckles.
---
Dominik lifted his shoulders. “Stuff happened, nothing serious.” He pulled in a further drag before simply exhaling the smoke after it had sat for long enough, free hand idly rubbing through his dark hair which looked like somebody had spent the night with their fingers in it. “But then I found out he had a boyfriend and I broke it off.”
He snorted softly. “I think he thought I was upset because it wasn’t serious which wasn’t the case more the fact he had a boyfriend and I don’t fuck with stuff like that, open relationship or not.”
Dominik finally lifted his gaze from where it had sort of fixated on a spot of Remy’s bed, intense focus fixed there for a few moments until it had finally lifted to look at the Cajun.
---
Gambit winced. He knew from experience, from even mild flirting with Dominik on the mats that once, that Dominik was a type to take relationships very seriously. All relationships, not just his own. It was a point that had made Remy chuckle at the time, when Dom had called him out for eyeing him, but one later that had earned the thief’s eternal respect and gratitude when the Greek had, in Remy’s weak moment, turned down a kiss that could have been easily made into something more.
It sounded like what had happened with Josh hadn’t been given a window to discover the ‘in a relationship’ status before it got to that point. Gambit could guess from his own dealings with Dominik, and the way he worked his hair just then, that it must eat at the boy. “Non. You don’t fuck wit stuff like dat.” He agreed, stirring the melting ice cream slowly while his cigarette burned and his eyes, red and darkened, studied the other teen.
“You didn’t know, Dominik. Ain’t your fault dat boy took it so lightly. Not everyone gonna see de world in black and white like you can. It’s a gift you got. Gift and a curse, non?” Remy twitched a small smile and let go of the spoon to move the cigarette to his mouth again, holding it while he pulled in a breath of smoke, letting it seep all the way to his bones on the pull. It might be the only one he’d get away with until he got out of here, so he intended on making it last.
---
"More like a curse," Dominik shared with a rueful smile. "I think I'd have more fun in life if I let the grey seep in more." He stubbed out the cigarette and shrugged. "But hey shit happens. Just gotta roll with the punches."
He wasn't going to mention how Josh had tried to sweet talk him around. Past was past, best left there.
Dominik tucked his cigarettes away. "Aside from that I know Josh does good work far as healing goes but just don't know what he'd ask for in return."
---
"You seen him heal before?" Remy asked curiously, "He ever healed you?" The way Dominik talked about Josh's powers made it seem like he'd know from first hand experience. But it did come down to the price and whether or not there'd be one, and if Remy would be willing to pay. Some people wanted to do things for nothing. Like Jean with her tutoring. Remy had to get creative with those kinds of people. Others were specific and could name their price. Gambit didn't know which he preferred to deal with, but regardless, he didn't take and not give.
"If I can do him a favor first, den I got him on lock, non? But what." He mused thoughtfully, saddened when his cigarette came to an end. He looked at it with a disappointed sigh. He giveth and he taketh away.
---
"Not first hand," Dominik said with a shake of his head. "But from what I hear his power is all about the healing so I'm sure it'll do what it says on the tin."
At the mention of the favour Dominik shrugged. "Dunno, man. Josh and I didn't do a lot of talking."
---
Remy huffed a laugh and shook his head, letting the subject rest there. It didn’t seem as though Dominik had any more information anyway, or an opinion either way. “Fair enough.” He set the used cigarette down on the edge of the ice cream bowl and smiled at the tall boy, stretching his legs under the sheets with a brief groan. He’d have to think on his dilemma some more later. “Tanks for comin, Rarity. Knew you’d understand de need for a smoke. Can’t hold you down here forever, and you better scatter before de staff comes and finds out I been slipped contraband.” he smirked and winked. “Your name won’t pass my lips.”
---
Dominik tipped his fingers to his temple. "Happy to oblige." And with that he rose to his feet, touched Remy on the shoulder. "Try and get some rest, alright?" He offered a smile and squeezed for a moment before letting go. Touch lingered for long enough for Dominik to reassure himself that Remy was whole present and very much alive.
"Look forward to having you up and about again," he shared over his shoulder as he headed out. "Kinda dull otherwise."