Title: Home, Hearth, and Husbands
Fandom: X-Men
Author: Apache Firecat
Dedicated To: My own beloved husband, who also drives me crazy but without whom I'd have been lost long ago <3 <3 <3
Characters: Gambit/Rogue, Cyclops/Jean Grey, Wolverine/Storm, Shadowcat
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: Women talk over the ways of husbands, home, family, and life itself as they put one of their own's home back together.
Word Count: 2,054
Written For: Fan FlashWorks 430: Looking Back, X-Men 15 7. Love, and 100 Ships 67. Denim (Scott/Jean)
Warnings: General and assorted spoilers for the run of the X-books and particularly Remy/Rogue's and Scott/Jean's romances
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.







"Ah still can't believe that Swamp Rat!" Rogue exclaimed, shoving a gloved fist through one of Remy's pants legs.

"You said he had dinner waiting for you," Ororo gently reminded her. A light breeze rippled through the living room.

"He did," Rogue said, folding her husband's jeans, "but -- "

"And he wouldn't put out while you were gone," Jean added, "except for missions. He didn't want to be -- " She glanced at Ororo, silently searching for a delicate way to put the words on her mind.

Kitty took a swig of her whiskey and chimed in, "He didn't want to be tempted to mess around on you, Rogue, and he wasn't. I know the house is a mess, but trust me -- most guys would've done a lot worse."

Rogue pouted, but even she had to admit. "Ah know you're right. It's just... frustratin'."

"Yeah, yeah. He's gone to save th' world again when Ah just got back from savin' it. He could've woke me, had me go with him."

"But instead he left breakfast, a rose, and a note for you. That's way more than most men would do! I'm lucky if Scott even kisses me 'bye!"

"Yeah, but Ah bet you don't have to pick up behind him like he's a two year-old!"

"I don't, but that's only because Scott's always been neat. He was an orphan before the Professor took him in, with very few belongings, and with as many times as the mansion and the schools have been destroyed, he's never really stopped being a minimalist. Remy, on the other hand -- " Jean waved a hand around them.

"Is a freakin' clothes horse, Ah know!" Rogue exclaimed. "Man's got more clothes than Ah do!"

Ororo glanced toward the bathroom, the light breeze flitting over each of the gathered women. "Have you..." she ventured questioningly.

"Oh, Ah've taken a shower."

"So you were able to shower?" Ororo asked. "Without having to unclog the drains?"

"Yeah." Rogue looked doubtfully at her. It took a moment for comprehension to dawn, and then she snickered. She hid her laugh behind her hand, but she couldn't refrain from bursting out with a guffaw.

Ororo's blue eyes narrowed at her. Rogue quieted as her ears picked up the very distant and light rumble of thunder outside. "I take it Wolvy actually does shred as much as they say?"

Jean was already shaking her head. "Bless you, Ororo, for putting up with him!"

"As many things as I can say about Logan," Ororo spoke softly, but the thunder was growing louder and nearer, "I can honestly say he has never allowed another woman to lick him while we've been together."

"Lick him?!" Rogue's startled, green eyes darted quickly between her two oldest female friends.

"Lick him," Ororo repeated firmly.

"Which is exactly why," Kitty said, waving her silver flask in the air, "Remy wouldn't let Betsy in here!"

Rogue shot her an inquiring, demanding look. "Did she try to come into mah house while Ah was gone?!"

"No. Emma did once, but she wasn't after that, and Remy wouldn't let her anyway. The man's loyal to you, Rogue. You're lucky." She surveyed the room around them. "This really isn't that bad," she said, and it wasn't, especially after they'd gathered the discarded clothes strewn across the room. "He cooks for you. He empties his own ashtrays. You could have it a lot worse."

"Yeah, but then Ah -- "

"Don't start with that 'maybe I shouldn't have married him' bull. You know you love him! He loves you! And the single life isn't all it's cracked up to be." She took another swig.

"Kitten, perhaps -- "

The glare Kitty shot her followed almost immediately by a long gulp of burning fire down her throat both reminded Ororo of her own fiancé and warned her that that was an argument she did not care to tackle on this particular day. "You do love Remy," she said, choosing to focus instead on Rogue, "and he you. You two have a rare kind of love that's hard to find in this world but you've managed to find it together. You have that kind of love that Jean shares with Scott. It truly is a once in a life time experience, and most women, and men too, never find that one partner who really can fulfill them."

"Scott doesn't -- "

"Yes, he does. How many times have you two died only to fight your way back to each other again? Everything you and he both have endured, Jean, in coming back from the grave has not been merely for the Dream, or the team. Each time, you latch on to that special something in the other that fulfills you, that makes you whole again. We are, after all, the missing ribs."

"You believe that?!" Rogue asked incredulously. It was Kitty's turn to snicker.

"Yes, I do, and if you think about it, Rogue, you'll see what I mean. They use each other as a beacon, and that's why they're always able to come home to one another." Ororo's face and voice were full of longing. She'd love to have that kind of relationship with Logan, but feared even he would never make her whole like that.

Jean had fallen quiet. She looked down at her hands and slowly, thoughtfully, twisted the gold band around on her finger. There was a certain truth to Ororo's words. For all the things Scott had done to her, cheating with Emma, doing all but cheating with Psylocke, even when she had been engulfed by the Phoenix's cosmic rage and power, there had been a part of her that had always known where Scott was, with whom, and what he was doing, how he was feeling and thinking. At times in the past, she had simply attributed that to their telepathic bond, but to have felt it even during the Phoenix, when there'd been so little left of her -- Her hand dropped, unconsciously, to her own ribcage as she thought of her husband and reminisced over their past together.

"Even when you left him in Antartica," Ororo continued, "you hated yourself for doing so."

"Ah didn't know what else to do," Rogue whispered, tears suddenly gleaming in her emerald eyes. She cast her gaze down to her boots at first, but then caught sight of her own wedding ring and gazed at the shimmering, gold band instead. "Ah just wish he wasn't so infantile!"

"He isn't, not really," Ororo cajoled.

"He made you dinner, had dinner waiting, breakfast waiting -- "

"All men are children," Jean suddenly spoke back up. "Trust me, I have an entire dresser full of ash from the clocks Scott kills every single morning of our life together."

All three of the other women frowned at her in confusion.

"Every morning, when the alarm goes off, his first instinct is still to fry it with an optic beam!"

They stared at her in shock. Slowly, Ororo spoke, "You're kidding!"

"No," she answered, shaking her red head, "I'm not! And he thinks he's hiding it from me -- his telepathic wife! That's why the drawer's full of ash. He rakes the ashes in there every morning, and then dumps the drawer when he thinks I won't notice. I've even dumped it a couple of times, and he still thinks I don't know!"

"Men are such children!" Kitty looked up as Ororo actually giggled. Her laughter was always such a beautiful, joyous sound. But then she grew and serious once more as new enlightenment filled the Earthly Goddess' blue eyes. "But perhaps, they truly cannot help it. If we are their missing ribs, they are incomplete until we find each other. How can they hope to truly grow up as long as they are not whole?"

"It is a beautiful story," Kitty relented slightly, although she remained convinced that was all it was.

"Regardless of why they are," Jean said, laying her hands on top of the Cajun's denim shirt folded in her lap, "they are still children. We women always mature faster. I can remember, from an early age, my Mother always warning me that when I did finally meet a man and settle down, I'd have to finish raising him. That is exactly how she put it too. She was convinced she was my Father's second mother."

"Was she?" Kitty asked with a grin from around her upturned flask.

Jean considered, chewing at her bottom lip in deep thought. "I can't say she wasn't," she said at last. "And Corsair has thanked me for what I've done with Scott."

"There is that old saying," Kitty acknowledged, tipping her flask, "that behind every great man is a great woman."

"And it's true," Ororo insisted. "Wife, girlfriend, mother, sister, daughter even sometimes. No man has ever been completed without a woman's assistance."

"And you'd know, Goddess," Rogue said, leaning back and sipping her sweet tea.

"I remember a child," Ororo softly spoke, gazing across at her, "who first came here so terrified and desperate for help. That's kind of like what men are deep down until they are able to build their own little spot of a kingdom. They need, and deserve, to feel like Kings of their world, but to do so requires a strong Queen behind them and at their side -- "

Rogue frowned, puzzled. "How do Ah stand at both places?"

"It's not physical," Kitty murmured, looking down at the floor and her thick boots.

"Indeed it is not."

"It's -- metaphorical," Jean tried to explain. "Kinda like that old country song, Stand By Your Man. Even when they mess up, they need to know you've got their backs and won't be too angry at them."

"Ah mean, Ah didn't fuss at him or anythin' -- "

"Good, because he really is trying. Did he wake you with a kiss this morning?"

Rogue frowned. "His lettah said he did, but Ah don't remembah. Ah was too tired, after bein' gone all week."

"Do you know," Ororo recalled fondly, "I was actually with Remy when we received word that you and the rest of your team were on the way home?"

"No."

"He immediately ran out here to start cooking you dinner." She smiled. "Logan's good about buying me a steak dinner, or any food I want really, but to actually have a man who stops everything and goes running to cook for you -- "

Rogue had begun to grin again. "He is special," she admitted, her green eyes shining.

"Don't forget that," Kitty stated, her words slurring ever so slightly. She waved her flask through the air. "Don't ever forget that and go looking for something better because you've got the right one for you."

"Ah know Ah do," Rogue admitted with a bashful but proud grin. "Ah just -- Sometimes Ah need a little help rememberin' is all. Thank you, girls, an' thank y'all for th' help cleaning up." She glanced around them. "We've almost got it done."

Her bell rang. "Come in!" she called without getting up. She knew it would be Jubilee and Bobby with the pizzas. She leaned back, allowing herself to fall into the plush couch. "We really are settlin' down into old age, aren't we?" she murmured.

"No, not old age."

Jean and Ororo shared another understanding look.

"The matrimonial age maybe?" Jean suggested.

"Not even that." Ororo shook her head. "Welcome home, Rogue."

Rogue beamed, but as she looked around, she realized she still wasn't quite home yet. When Remy got back home this time, then she would be home. Her joy shone over her face. They were settling in and settling down into building a home together, but they'd already built a life together in all truthfulness, and they were surrounded by it -- by friends and extended family, by adventures and dangers, by a life unlike any other but better, in its own ways, than anything else they could have had, definitely better, by far, than anything else they could have had alone. She was blessed to have her husband and his love. She just needed a few reminders sometimes. She beamed and sighed happily, but still tired. It was good to be home!




The End