X-Men (616): Remy LeBeau. 003. Ends/ 044. Circles/002. Middles/033. Too Much
Title: Exile
Fandom: X-Men: Remy LeBeau
Characters: Remy LeBeau, Henri LeBeau
Prompt: Ends
Word Count: 421
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: I didn't mean to do so much in chronological order, but the muse wants this all down before going onto the later stuff. Part One of Seven.
There were a lot of things a man would do for the love of a beautiful woman. And she had been the most beautiful woman that Remy had ever seen in all his eighteen years. The moment he saw Bella Donna Boudreaux walking down the aisle in that white dress, he knew there was no other for him.
The wedding was as small an affair as could be put together when it involved the children of the heads of two rival guilds. It was meant to be a celebration. Not just of the nuptials but of what they meant: peace between the Thieves and Assassins. The two Guilds would be united. Nothing could stop that.
Or, rather, nothing should have stopped it. But Remy stood in the shadow of the Church of Lost Thieves, clutching a rapier in his hands. At his feet was the body of the man who had been his brother-in-law for only a few hours. In that moment, he realized the truth. There would be no peace between thief and assassin.
"Remy!" Henri LeBeau hurried to his adoptive brother's side. He grabbed Remy's shoulders, pulling him around. "Mon Dieu, Remy, what have you done?"
The younger man blinked those odd eyes of his, shaking himself. "He challenged me, Henri." His voice was oddly flat. Detached. He couldn't process what had just happened.
"I know he did." Henri's eyes were compassionate, but they were scared as well. "An' he woulda killed you if you hadn'. But Remy…" He trailed off and shook his head.
The challenge had been made outside the Church as the happy couple exited. Julien Boudreaux had never been happy about the idea of his little sister being given to "dat dirty t'ievin' chien". So he had challenged Remy to a duel. To the death.
It had been suicide, but perhaps Julien had known that going in. The younger of the LeBeau boys was a better swordsman, by far, than any Assassin. And by forcing Remy to kill him, he had accomplished what all his railing at his father had failed to do.
There would be no peace between the Thieves and the Assassins.
Remy was banished before the sun came up. Marius, Patriarch of the Assassins and Julien's father, had made certain of that. He would not be allowed to return to New Orleans, on pain of death.
There were a lot of things a man would do for the love of a beautiful woman. Perhaps the hardest, in Remy's case, was walking away.
Title: Spiraling Downward
Fandom: X-Men: Remy LeBeau
Characters: Remy LeBeau
Prompt: Circles
Word Count: 319
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: Part Two of Seven
Circles were Remy's life now. Vicious ones, even. He would get to a new town. Find a job. Usually some low-paying piece of shit job like washing dishes because a kid with his eyes and no real skills couldn't get better. Jobs like that paid the bills and kept him fed, but they weren't exactly challenging.
It had been in Texas when the problems started. Remy had never been known for being able to hold onto his temper. So when his boss had started giving him problems over his last name-calling him 'beautiful' because that was how it translated-Remy gave up on keeping his anger to himself.
It turned out not to be the only thing that he couldn't keep to himself anymore.
He could only stare at his boss, at first, bathed in that distinctive magenta power. The same power that he had been able to call to hand since he was fourteen. Except that he'd never been able to do it to someone alive, and most certainly not to anything he wasn't touching.
The sound of a plate shattering brought him back out of his stupor and he swayed. Everything had energy to it. Normally he never noticed it. Not like this, at least. But knowing it meant he could take it back. It took time. Time that wrenched his gut and made his muscles burn with tension. Time that stretched on and on, but was really only a few small moments. Time enough for two more ceramic plates to shatter, but not his boss. No deaths.
But before anybody could say anything, he was out the door and on his way.
And so it began. Vicious circles, closing in on themselves. New town, new job, new start. A few months of peace and it would start again. Spiraling downwards until, in the middle of the Arizona desert, there was no place else to go.
Title: Rock Bottom
Fandom: X-Men: Remy LeBeau
Characters: Remy LeBeau, John Grey Crow
Prompt: Middles
Word Count: 685
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: Contains suicidal thoughts. Part Three of Seven.
Millstone, Arizona, was as close to the middle of nowhere as one was likely to get. Anybody that knew the charismatic Cajun would hardly think to look for him in a town that was little more than a collection of trailers and adobe houses in the middle of the Arizona desert.
"And just where do you think you're going, huh, Cajun?"
Or, at least, nobody who didn't already know he was there. Remy looked up from where he was folding a shirt, emotion hidden under a mask of indifference. He had perfected those masks, able to show emotions through them that he didn't feel. Couldn't feel because of his powers.
The latest almost-victim of those powers stood in the doorway of his trailer, wide shoulders blocking any chance of getting out past him. Grey Crow leaned against the doorjamb, trailer creaking with the effort of holding back his massive frame. His raised eyebrow indicated he was waiting on an answer.
Remy shook his head, throwing the shirt into the saddlebags for his motorcycle. "Why de hell you care, Crow? Ain't I done 'nough to you today?" He closed his eyes, trying not to picture the argument in the diner's kitchen and the way the energy had flared around them. How he almost hadn't been able to get it back.
The trailer groaned again as Grey Crow shifted, leaning in through the doorway now. "So what are you going to do? Ride off into the sunset and not look back. What about next time, LeBeau?"
"Dere ain't gonna be a next time." Remy's jaw tightened. He didn't want to think about it, but he had to. He'd almost fully lost control this time. Almost killed Crow and taken most of the diner with them. That was far too dangerous. HE was far too dangerous.
The other man's eyes narrowed. "I don't like the sound of that, Cajun. What are you planning?"
Remy turned and glared at him for a moment, then looked away and went back to packing. His silence was all the answer that was really necessary.
The small trailer shifted unsteadily as Grey Crow climbed in, axles protesting the abuse his much larger body inflicted on them. "You think going out into the desert and offing yourself is gonna help anybody? Took you for a lot of things, Cajun, but stupid wasn't one of them."
"It ain't stupid." Remy's voice was level and calm, even though his stomach twisted into knots.
"Then it's cowardly at best."
The red in his eyes flared as he turned, jaw tightening until he could hear his own teeth creak with the strain. Grey Crow, however, only crossed his arms. "Yes, I said cowardly. You're scared, so going off and killing yourself seems like the best idea. Well, I say it stinks. Your father raised you to give up, did he?"
"Poppa raised me to know when it was it was time to cut an' run. To know when a pinch was gonna go wrong an' to get de hell out while de getting' is good." He was starting to get stressed, which showed as the shirt in his hand charged. His shoulders tensed as he fought the power down. The energy flickered once, twice, then cut out. Only then did he begin to relax a bit. "See dat? I can't stay 'round people if I'm gonna be like dis all de time."
Grey Crow was silent for a long moment, then offered, "What if I told you I knew of a man that might be able to help you?" When Remy didn't respond right away, he went on. "I don't know much about him. A man named Essex. He works out of Seattle. He specializes in mutants and mutations. He might be able to do something to help you get control."
The young man stared at the t-shirt in his hands for a few minutes, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He stuffed it into the bag and turned to Grey Crow. "I t'ink I'd wanna know how to get 'hold of dis homme."
Title: One Night at the Theater
Fandom: X-Men: Remy LeBeau
Characters: Remy LeBeau, Dr. Nathaniel Essex
Prompt: Too Much
Word Count: 408
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: Contains suicidal thoughts and actions. Part Four of Seven
"No."
Nathaniel Essex watched the young man before him impassively. Watched the way those red-on-black eyes widened in disbelief. Most people probably found those eyes difficult to read, but it was only proof in his mind that people were idiots. Really, the boy was an open book. To the right person, that is.
"Non?" That same disbelief was evident in the boy's voice. "Didn' you hear anyt'in' dat I tol' you? I'm a danger to de people 'round me. People dat ain't done not'in' to me."
"You are a mutant," Essex said, punctuating his pronouncement by slamming his cane against the wooden stage they stood on. The theater had been an easy enough place to meet a young man who didn't know the area. "As such, people will always do things to you. Did you not learn that as a child? Were you not shunned because of your eyes? They are the same sorts of people that you would protect from your own powers?"
Remy's gaze turned to puzzled desperation. "I can't mete out punishment for t'ings dat people might do to me," he said. "An' I can't punish those dat ain't done not'in' to me for what someone else did to me years 'go."
He really was bothered by this. Essex frowned. He knew the boy's history, of course. He'd been watching Remy LeBeau for quite a while. The powers that the young man displayed were incredible. Powers that he, himself, could put to good use. But it looked as though the young man might have too much in the way of morals. Strange, he thought, for a boy who had been trained as a thief.
Remy's head fell forward and Essex found himself smiling. The posture indicated that he was giving up. Perhaps the boy could be talked around to his way of thinking after all.
It was only when he saw the flames licking at curtains that had taken on a magenta hue that he realized his mistake. Remy was defeated, yes, but not by his argument. He had been defeated by the weight of too much power on sanity that wasn't made to carry it. LeBeau knew he couldn't handle so much power and was willing to take the doctor down with him to prove the point.
As the roof took on the same magenta cast, Essex realized that perhaps he couldn't read the boy before him as well as he thought he could.
Fandom: X-Men: Remy LeBeau
Characters: Remy LeBeau, Henri LeBeau
Prompt: Ends
Word Count: 421
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: I didn't mean to do so much in chronological order, but the muse wants this all down before going onto the later stuff. Part One of Seven.
There were a lot of things a man would do for the love of a beautiful woman. And she had been the most beautiful woman that Remy had ever seen in all his eighteen years. The moment he saw Bella Donna Boudreaux walking down the aisle in that white dress, he knew there was no other for him.
The wedding was as small an affair as could be put together when it involved the children of the heads of two rival guilds. It was meant to be a celebration. Not just of the nuptials but of what they meant: peace between the Thieves and Assassins. The two Guilds would be united. Nothing could stop that.
Or, rather, nothing should have stopped it. But Remy stood in the shadow of the Church of Lost Thieves, clutching a rapier in his hands. At his feet was the body of the man who had been his brother-in-law for only a few hours. In that moment, he realized the truth. There would be no peace between thief and assassin.
"Remy!" Henri LeBeau hurried to his adoptive brother's side. He grabbed Remy's shoulders, pulling him around. "Mon Dieu, Remy, what have you done?"
The younger man blinked those odd eyes of his, shaking himself. "He challenged me, Henri." His voice was oddly flat. Detached. He couldn't process what had just happened.
"I know he did." Henri's eyes were compassionate, but they were scared as well. "An' he woulda killed you if you hadn'. But Remy…" He trailed off and shook his head.
The challenge had been made outside the Church as the happy couple exited. Julien Boudreaux had never been happy about the idea of his little sister being given to "dat dirty t'ievin' chien". So he had challenged Remy to a duel. To the death.
It had been suicide, but perhaps Julien had known that going in. The younger of the LeBeau boys was a better swordsman, by far, than any Assassin. And by forcing Remy to kill him, he had accomplished what all his railing at his father had failed to do.
There would be no peace between the Thieves and the Assassins.
Remy was banished before the sun came up. Marius, Patriarch of the Assassins and Julien's father, had made certain of that. He would not be allowed to return to New Orleans, on pain of death.
There were a lot of things a man would do for the love of a beautiful woman. Perhaps the hardest, in Remy's case, was walking away.
Title: Spiraling Downward
Fandom: X-Men: Remy LeBeau
Characters: Remy LeBeau
Prompt: Circles
Word Count: 319
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: Part Two of Seven
Circles were Remy's life now. Vicious ones, even. He would get to a new town. Find a job. Usually some low-paying piece of shit job like washing dishes because a kid with his eyes and no real skills couldn't get better. Jobs like that paid the bills and kept him fed, but they weren't exactly challenging.
It had been in Texas when the problems started. Remy had never been known for being able to hold onto his temper. So when his boss had started giving him problems over his last name-calling him 'beautiful' because that was how it translated-Remy gave up on keeping his anger to himself.
It turned out not to be the only thing that he couldn't keep to himself anymore.
He could only stare at his boss, at first, bathed in that distinctive magenta power. The same power that he had been able to call to hand since he was fourteen. Except that he'd never been able to do it to someone alive, and most certainly not to anything he wasn't touching.
The sound of a plate shattering brought him back out of his stupor and he swayed. Everything had energy to it. Normally he never noticed it. Not like this, at least. But knowing it meant he could take it back. It took time. Time that wrenched his gut and made his muscles burn with tension. Time that stretched on and on, but was really only a few small moments. Time enough for two more ceramic plates to shatter, but not his boss. No deaths.
But before anybody could say anything, he was out the door and on his way.
And so it began. Vicious circles, closing in on themselves. New town, new job, new start. A few months of peace and it would start again. Spiraling downwards until, in the middle of the Arizona desert, there was no place else to go.
Title: Rock Bottom
Fandom: X-Men: Remy LeBeau
Characters: Remy LeBeau, John Grey Crow
Prompt: Middles
Word Count: 685
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: Contains suicidal thoughts. Part Three of Seven.
Millstone, Arizona, was as close to the middle of nowhere as one was likely to get. Anybody that knew the charismatic Cajun would hardly think to look for him in a town that was little more than a collection of trailers and adobe houses in the middle of the Arizona desert.
"And just where do you think you're going, huh, Cajun?"
Or, at least, nobody who didn't already know he was there. Remy looked up from where he was folding a shirt, emotion hidden under a mask of indifference. He had perfected those masks, able to show emotions through them that he didn't feel. Couldn't feel because of his powers.
The latest almost-victim of those powers stood in the doorway of his trailer, wide shoulders blocking any chance of getting out past him. Grey Crow leaned against the doorjamb, trailer creaking with the effort of holding back his massive frame. His raised eyebrow indicated he was waiting on an answer.
Remy shook his head, throwing the shirt into the saddlebags for his motorcycle. "Why de hell you care, Crow? Ain't I done 'nough to you today?" He closed his eyes, trying not to picture the argument in the diner's kitchen and the way the energy had flared around them. How he almost hadn't been able to get it back.
The trailer groaned again as Grey Crow shifted, leaning in through the doorway now. "So what are you going to do? Ride off into the sunset and not look back. What about next time, LeBeau?"
"Dere ain't gonna be a next time." Remy's jaw tightened. He didn't want to think about it, but he had to. He'd almost fully lost control this time. Almost killed Crow and taken most of the diner with them. That was far too dangerous. HE was far too dangerous.
The other man's eyes narrowed. "I don't like the sound of that, Cajun. What are you planning?"
Remy turned and glared at him for a moment, then looked away and went back to packing. His silence was all the answer that was really necessary.
The small trailer shifted unsteadily as Grey Crow climbed in, axles protesting the abuse his much larger body inflicted on them. "You think going out into the desert and offing yourself is gonna help anybody? Took you for a lot of things, Cajun, but stupid wasn't one of them."
"It ain't stupid." Remy's voice was level and calm, even though his stomach twisted into knots.
"Then it's cowardly at best."
The red in his eyes flared as he turned, jaw tightening until he could hear his own teeth creak with the strain. Grey Crow, however, only crossed his arms. "Yes, I said cowardly. You're scared, so going off and killing yourself seems like the best idea. Well, I say it stinks. Your father raised you to give up, did he?"
"Poppa raised me to know when it was it was time to cut an' run. To know when a pinch was gonna go wrong an' to get de hell out while de getting' is good." He was starting to get stressed, which showed as the shirt in his hand charged. His shoulders tensed as he fought the power down. The energy flickered once, twice, then cut out. Only then did he begin to relax a bit. "See dat? I can't stay 'round people if I'm gonna be like dis all de time."
Grey Crow was silent for a long moment, then offered, "What if I told you I knew of a man that might be able to help you?" When Remy didn't respond right away, he went on. "I don't know much about him. A man named Essex. He works out of Seattle. He specializes in mutants and mutations. He might be able to do something to help you get control."
The young man stared at the t-shirt in his hands for a few minutes, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He stuffed it into the bag and turned to Grey Crow. "I t'ink I'd wanna know how to get 'hold of dis homme."
Title: One Night at the Theater
Fandom: X-Men: Remy LeBeau
Characters: Remy LeBeau, Dr. Nathaniel Essex
Prompt: Too Much
Word Count: 408
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: Contains suicidal thoughts and actions. Part Four of Seven
"No."
Nathaniel Essex watched the young man before him impassively. Watched the way those red-on-black eyes widened in disbelief. Most people probably found those eyes difficult to read, but it was only proof in his mind that people were idiots. Really, the boy was an open book. To the right person, that is.
"Non?" That same disbelief was evident in the boy's voice. "Didn' you hear anyt'in' dat I tol' you? I'm a danger to de people 'round me. People dat ain't done not'in' to me."
"You are a mutant," Essex said, punctuating his pronouncement by slamming his cane against the wooden stage they stood on. The theater had been an easy enough place to meet a young man who didn't know the area. "As such, people will always do things to you. Did you not learn that as a child? Were you not shunned because of your eyes? They are the same sorts of people that you would protect from your own powers?"
Remy's gaze turned to puzzled desperation. "I can't mete out punishment for t'ings dat people might do to me," he said. "An' I can't punish those dat ain't done not'in' to me for what someone else did to me years 'go."
He really was bothered by this. Essex frowned. He knew the boy's history, of course. He'd been watching Remy LeBeau for quite a while. The powers that the young man displayed were incredible. Powers that he, himself, could put to good use. But it looked as though the young man might have too much in the way of morals. Strange, he thought, for a boy who had been trained as a thief.
Remy's head fell forward and Essex found himself smiling. The posture indicated that he was giving up. Perhaps the boy could be talked around to his way of thinking after all.
It was only when he saw the flames licking at curtains that had taken on a magenta hue that he realized his mistake. Remy was defeated, yes, but not by his argument. He had been defeated by the weight of too much power on sanity that wasn't made to carry it. LeBeau knew he couldn't handle so much power and was willing to take the doctor down with him to prove the point.
As the roof took on the same magenta cast, Essex realized that perhaps he couldn't read the boy before him as well as he thought he could.