Title: Rough Trade and the Thief
Author: Scorpio (scorpiofic@aol.com)
Website: no site, but all stories are listed at a friend's: http://members.tripod.com/sentinel-cat/Scorpio/
Rating: NC-17
Pairing/main characters: Iceman/Gambit
Series/Sequel: unfinished
Summary: We all know that 12 year old Bobby was arrested by the police after being chased by a lynch mob and then Professor X sent Scott Summers to break him out of jail. But what would have happened if Bobby never even made it to the jail, what if he had escaped into the night?
Disclaimer: Stan Lee is God of the Marvel Universe and I am just a lowly worshipper.
Date: Feb 2002
Archive/distribution: Want. Take. Have. (it's what Gambit would do)
Warning: In this story, Remy is 18 and Bobby is 16 years old. They are both street kids and they have sex. Together. If that bothers you, use your delete key.
Notes: The expression "Rough Trade" referrers to a male prostitute who is willing to indulge a trick's fetishes and kinks, specifically BDSM...
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Rough Trade and the Thief - Prologue
By Scorpio
Bobby huddled down behind the large metal dumpster in the darkness, shivering with fear, tears of hopelessness dripping down his face. The past few hours had taken it's toll on him, bruising his soul and breaking his heart. Now, he was left with a clawing emptiness and a desperate sense of loss.
For almost a year now, Bobby had been working hard to suppress his burgeoning mutant powers, to control the surges of COLD that radiated from his body.
Bobby pushed himself to fit into the strict and limiting model of "normalcy" that his father William Drake advocated. It hadn't been an easy battle, and he had often felt isolated and alone while struggling with an overwhelming problem, but by the time his twelfth birthday rolled around, he was doing a lot better.
His life had seemed to get back onto the course his parents had set for him.
He was accepted into the advanced math program at school like his father wanted and he was going out to social events with the daughter of one of his mother's friends. Most importantly, his mutation was firmly suppressed.
Then, while escorting Judy home from a date their mothers had set up, disaster struck. Some older neighborhood bullies had caught them and began to harass and insult them. Bobby had been frightened and embarrassed, but it wasn't until one of them had caused Judy to cry out in pain that his anger flared up. And just that quick, his shaky control over the COLD within him
dissolved away. He reacted instinctively and coated the bullies in a thick layer of solid ice.
In an instant, *he*, not the bullies, became the bad guy. Judy's shrieks and cries of "Mutant! Oh God, he's a mutant!" brought people running from their homes. No one cared that Bobby had merely been defending himself and Judy. No one wanted to hear his side of the story. Not even Judy.
The crowd of people only understood their own fear and anger, their own ignorance and prejudice. Within a matter of moments, Bobby watched as that crowd of people transformed into a lynch mob that wanted to punish him, hurt him, hang him from the neck until dead.
Bobby ran.
Directly into the waiting arms of the cops that had been called in to "deal with and take down" the "dangerous" mutant running loose around town.
Inadvertently and unknowingly saving Bobby from the lynch mob, they roughly shoved him into the back of their squad car and drove away, heading for the town's jail.
Sitting in the back of the police car, his emotions bouncing from fear to anger to confusion to despair and back again, Bobby did not find a respite from unthinking hatred and fear. Instead, trapped behind a mesh wire partition, Bobby was forced to listen as the cops calmly discussed one of the more recent rumors that was circulating around the criminal underground.
Apparently, there were people willing to pay a lot of money to get their hands on mutant children. Enough money for two overworked and underpaid cops to retire early on.
They didn't know what these shadowy criminals wanted the mutant children for.
Medical and scientific experiments, paramilitary testing and application or even slave labor for foreign powers were only a few of the guesses made by the two cops. What's more, they didn't really care. In fact, they made it perfectly clear that they only saw Bobby as a sudden and unexpected financial opportunity. One that the community at large wouldn't worry about if he mysteriously disappeared.
Bobby spent the ride in a mix of mindless terror and righteous anger. As soon as the car stopped, the two cops got out and walked to the back so that they could open the door and escort Bobby inside the jail. Not really thinking, but merely reacting, Bobby blasted them with an intense wave of COLD.
Instantly, both cops froze solid, glittering under the bright flood lights.
Surprised by this, but not willing to let his only chance at escape slip away, Bobby tried to squeeze between the two frozen cops.
To his absolute horror, he accidentally tipped them over and watched in stunned silence as they shattered into a thousand bits and pieces across the asphalt. For one long and painful moment Bobby stared at the slowly melting remains of the two cops that he had just killed. Then a loud ringing shout pulled him from his own mind.
"Hey! You there! Freeze!"
The horrible ugly irony of their words brought a bark of hysterical laughter to his lips as he did just what they told him to. He froze. Literally. Coated in a thin sheath of ice, Bobby turned and ran as fast as he could. Ignoring the shouts of "Stop! Police!" and "Hurry up and catch the mutie cop-killer!" while dodging bullets, he soon found himself lost and alone.
Hiding behind a rusty metal dumpster in a dark and dirty alleyway.
At the moment, Bobby only had one vague thought in his head, and that was to escape the police search parties that were still looking for him. He knew that he was close to a commuter train station that would led him directly into New York City. If he could just get there, then he knew that he could easily hide among the masses of humanity.
And besides, it wasn't as if he could ever go home again. Right?