Title: Dangerous Possessions
 
Authors: Spirit Melody (kat@lsak.fsnet.co.uk) and Firesong (firesong@ukonline.co.uk)
 
Archive: All yours Lu, Vera if you want it, anyone else just ask! I'm sure we'll say yes.
 
Disclaimer: Strangely enough, they're not ours. Nope neither Logan, Remy, Pete or any other characters mentioned within are ours by any meaning of the word. All Marvel. Marvel. Marvel. Oh, we're also not making any money whatsoever from this. Unless someone's feeling generous.
 
Summary: Back from Antarctica Remy feels all alone, until he meets someone feeling the same way. But what's Logan going to do when he comes across information that their relationship is not as perfect as it sounds. Plus they have bounty hunters searching for a certain something Remy possesses.
 
Rating: It will definitely be NC-17, so no one underage from the start.
 
Pairings: Logan/Remy and Remy/other
 
Notes/Warnings: Story set after the whole deal with Antarctica... Violence, abuse, non-con - rape, mention of rape on a minor, you get the idea.
 
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Dangerous Possessions - Part One
 
Remy sat silently on the grass bank of the lake outside the boathouse, holding his hand tightly over the new and unfamiliar pendant that hung on a deceptively delicate appearing golden chain round his neck. He looked at his reflection in the clear still waters but did not really see it; did not *want* to see it to be more precise. One look in a mirror reminded him of everything his life was. All the countless failures. And all the pain and tears he'd shed behind those failures.
 
'Dis not be like you Remy, y're not some self pityin' fool.'
 
The figure sitting by the lake was a stark and usually over-powering contrast to most things, even the brilliant sunset that had been painted with an artist's brush on the skies above. He sighed, turning his gaze upwards from the waters to the sky even though it caused his eyes slight discomfort; and long glistening hair, the tips wet from carelessly bending over water too far, shifted in position and floated down the young man's smooth back which was bronzed a little from the Summer sun.
 
He wore nothing but a worn pair of tight blue stonewash jeans which hugged his thighs and lay seductively, even if unconsciously seductively, low on his slender hips.
 
The man watching him from a distance, not at home exactly on the X-Men's grounds, but a welcome visitor all the same, thought the glorious vision before him was something out of a sensualistic prophet's dream. Remy was a man desired from afar by many - but to them he was always just out of reach, you might catch a lock of ruby hair but then he would be gone, flown away like a sprite on the breeze. But this man had him, oh yes, he had him.
 
The man walked over to Remy and knelt behind him. He fluttered his fingers down the Cajun's naked spine causing Remy to gasp, before turning his head to look at him, and then letting his head fall back onto the other man's shoulder. So sensitive, the man smiled fondly at the reaction and sat down, opening his legs so Remy sat snugly between his thighs. He put a pair of strong arms around the small waist, nibbling at the neck that lay before him so enticingly. Remy moaned appreciatively.
 
"'Allo, Pete." The Acadian whispered in a breathless voice as his lover continued his administrations on his neck. Pete Wisdom didn't reply but continued his nuzzling. And without knowing it, the two men's minds both drifted back to the same time a couple of months ago; their first meeting.
 
****
 
From Muir Island, Moira had called the X-Men and asked them to send two people over with the new batch of Shi'ar equipment they were dispatching to Excalibur - to help with the unloading and setting up for a week or two. The job wasn't exactly front man material, and not much trust would be needed on Xavier's part, so naturally Gambit was chosen. He may have been on the active list, but no one particularly acted like he was, unless of course a mission no one else really wanted came along and then everyone was glad to get him off the grounds. Failing that, he'd been degraded to general dog's body.  Chores around the mansion that were usually shared, were now miraculously all his. Scott even deigned to say how nice the toilets were looking now. Remy had just raised his middle finger in defiance, and left to finish cleaning the oven. Apparently being isolated in the boathouse wasn't enough for the fair number of X-Men which hated him so. And Logan, being unofficially punished for his latest escapade, was the second 'volunteer'.
 
****
 
~Two months ago, the Blackbird, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean~
 
Logan watched with bored disinterest as the third perfectly formed ring of cigar smoke of his own creation rose leisurely to the low ceiling of the Blackbird's spacious piloting cabin. Just the front of this magnificent piece of technology was built for about eight; two men with the whole jet to themselves could have quite easily been a long way away from each other - only, they weren't.
 
Remy LeBeau occupied the pilot's chair on the left and Logan sat in the chair behind the co-pilot's; on a diagonal behind the Cajun.
 
They'd been in the air for two hours, yet Remy had hardly said a thing, only giving mono-syllibic answers when directly questioned. He busied his hands with the gentle art of steering the plane, even though they could easily be on auto-pilot; but his mind was obviously somewhere else entirely. Not to say the steering wasn't excellent, there had barely been one shudder or brake the whole trip so far - if you'd asked Logan he would have said it was better than Cyke's driving at full concentration; it was just that the young man's stare was completely blank, utterly devoid of any emotion apart from a trace of a terrible sadness which hurt Logan immensely, though he couldn't figure out why. And the movements of the slender fingers never faltered once in their seemingly endless pattern. An accurate, but completely sub-conscious dance of thief's digits.
 
'Travellin' a long journey with Gumbo - at least thought I'd get a good game of poker!'  Logan sighed, tapping his cigar on the arm of his chair and purposely letting the ash fall onto the floor. Suddenly bored and annoyed with Gambit's lethargy to no end Wolverine stood up and sat down once again, now in the co-pilot's seat, his feet resting on Remy's arm rest, just shy of the young Cajun's upper arm. Remy's out of focus gaze didn't shift towards him at all.
 
Using some tricks he had picked up from too many to count trips in the Blackbird with the X-Men Logan switched steering control over to auto-pilot and shut down access to the operating system from the pilot's station.
 
Remy's hands stopped in mid-motion as all life fled from his controls. He appeared to stare down bemused at the panel but Logan couldn't tell exactly as shining bangs of fiery auburn hair fell forward to cover the majority of the Cajun's face.
 
Pleased at his little triumph over Remy, Logan smiled a cryptic smile that no one saw. He enjoyed surprising the Cajun.
 
Startling and extraordinary red eyes lazily looked up towards Logan, and Remy blinked.
 
Then blinked again, just for good measure.
 
"Whadd'ya do dat for?" he asked, honestly utterly oblivious to Logan's reasons.
 
"What did I do that fer??" Incredulous, Logan laughed and shook his head in a gesture Remy found a bit too patronising for his liking, "We've been flyin' this tin can fer two fuckin' hours an' you've been in a trance fer most of it and ya didn't *know*??"
 
Quite taken aback, but careful not to show it Remy slipped his near to perfect poker face on and regarded Logan with a frank stare.
 
"I was 'ardly in a trance Logan!" he replied, a hint of real animosity in his tone that was absent in Logan's, "I was jus' flyin' de plane!"
 
"Ever heard of auto-pilot?"
 
Remy smirked. "Mebbe Remy wanted t' put his own personal touch in t' it, non?"
 
Logan's breath got just a little bit harsher, he was sure he hadn't imagined that Remy had stressed both personal and touch. He was surprised at his reaction until he remembered just what made Remy so difficult to live with at times. His charm power.
 
'Kid's usin' his flamin' charm power on me! What does he think he's doin'? I'm old enough ta be his father, his GRANDfather fer chrissake!'
 
Little did Logan know, Remy wasn't at all.
 
Logan looked out the large window in front of them and irritably chewed the unlit end of a new cigar, 'til the feeling died away..
 
"Ever been told that yer really infuriatin' Gumbo?"
 
"Mais oui. T'ousands o' times. Most o' dem by Scott. Apart from when he's saying dat I missed a bit o' dirt."
 
Shaking his head again, but smiling ruefully, Logan relaxed into the co-pilot's chair, looking forward to spending some time with Pete Wisdom. Pete was an old friend of Logan's, he was a heavy smoker, a heavy drinker and had a mouth on him. Qualities Logan could respect in a guy. In fact, Wolverine realised, he was rather like Remy.
 
'Always wondered why I liked the two of 'em so much.'
 
****
 
Another hour or so later, under the careful and now permitted by Logan ministrations of Remy, the Blackbird touched down on one of the few large flat places to find around the close proximity of Excalibur's abode, on Muir Island.
 
Moira and Shadowcat were there to meet them and walked over as the two X-Men exited the Shi'ar plane. Moira smiled and Kitty flung herself into Logan's arms, hugging her old mentor tightly. After a brief hesitation he wrapped his arms around her slight body, returning the affection.
 
"I've missed ya darlin'." he said gruffly, but none of the three within hearing distance missed the fatherly love in those few words.
 
"Missed you too Wolvie!" spoke Kitty, her voice muffled by Logan's chequered shirt.
 
Leaving the old friends to catch up Moira diverted her gaze to the quiet young man who had accompanied Logan.
 
Realising he was being watched Remy looked up and was met by the pleasant face of Moira MacTaggert. She smiled and he returned it with no small amount of relief, glad he wasn't going to be met with hostility and resentment by all of Excalibur's members.
 
She walked over to him and shook his hand, politely but not too formally.
 
"Remy, welcome t' the UK!"
 
The two X-fighters had met a few times before, most of them though under events of cataclysmic proportions, and had not had as much time as they might have liked to enjoy each other's company - being forced to worry about saving the lives of innocents around them, and hopefully their own in the process. So they weren't really on first name basis by most rules of society, but Moira was loathe to use codenames off the proverbial battlefield.
 
Moira could see that Remy was clearly uncomfortable, dreading but expecting any mention of the Marauders, or the Morlock Massacre, but he was trying to hide it well.
 
'Why do I get th' feeling Remy - that since I last saw ye, you've been stripped down the very barest o' your defenses.'
 
"'Allo Moira, y' gonna help us big boys unload de precious cargo? Or let m' guess, you an' Kitty'll supervise, non?" Remy teased.
 
The precious cargo was, in fact, Shi'ar equipment that Excalibur needed, some of it for progress on the research to find a cure for the Legacy Virus. Most of the rest was advanced technology in the realms of communication and mutant location, but among all of that was one of the Ti'Kllinal. The Ti'Kllinal was a set of three unique gemstones, each pure black in colour but translucent, and possessing of powers only documented in myth and legend - and only then not in detail, all that waas confirmed was that the power (or being) that lay trapped within these stones was the overall balance of light and dark, good and ill; and if successfully harnessed could gift a creature with abilities beyond the dreams of Gods, but for the slightest chance of that you needed all three stones and something else documented in myth along with the gems - the child of element. No one knew who or what this child was, and could think of no way of finding out.
 
So in fear of their power, the stones were separated, two were sent into the protection of the Royal family of the Shi'ar, rulers of Universes. The other was thrown into the lethal oceans of a lone grey planet in an uninhabited solar system, deadly to creatures and their crafts orbiting it, let alone ones attempting to land.
 
But now that lone grey planet is no more, destroyed by a force the Shi'ar can't identify, and the gem there has disappeared. The two remaining Ti'Kllinal, previously kept under secure guard in the Royal Palace of the Shi'ar Empire, have been split up and moved to places of which only a minimal number of individuals know the identity of. It was speculated that one has been put into the capable hands of the wise Shi'ar prophet Zan Ignal; and the other has been sent to an insignificant green and blue planet, and more precisely into the protection of Charles Xavier.
 
And the professor has sent it on to Excalibur, knowing the X-Men have had too many evident run-ins with the Shi'ar for the gem to be safe with them.
 
Moira laughed and started to lead the group, back to the home of the Excalibur team.
 
"Glad ye men are learning, but I'll get Pete and Piotr to lend ye a wee bit o' help." She looked up at the sky, and the rapidly decreasing light in thought, "You two come in f' a bite t' eat, then we'd better bring in the cargo before it gets dark."
 
"Not a problem for me or Gumbo." Wolverine remarked, heading fast out on his own due to the promise of food.
 
'It had better have meat in it. I had enough of Storm and her vegetarian week back home.'