King of New Orleans

Disclaimer: Remy Lebeau belongs to Marvel (sigh), and the song "King of New Orleans" belongs to Better Than Ezra.

A/N: I never got to see any episodes after Magneto's disappearance, so I'm setting this a few weeks after that. Hope you enjoy!
@@@@ = memory sequence

Walking the streets of New York was nothing like back home, Remy Lebeau mused. Sure the people were just as easy to pickpocket and the tourists all looked the same, but the air lacked the fragrance of fresh food and never-truly-dry mud. But why was he even thinking about this? Remy frowned as he remembered passing a young boy, maybe 12 years old, kneeling on cement steps and begging to be let in. He lived like that once, from bread crumb to bread crumb. *Whoa, Lebeau,* he thought. *You keep dis up, y'gon git los' in dem mem'ries.* Lighting up a cigarette as he sat down on an old crate, Remy closed his eyes and found himself doing just that....

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@


[Got an angel on the stairs
As if you'd even care
When the lights are up
And the sun had nearly gone... down]
The eight year old boy sat down on the steps of the rundown motel that wouldn't let him back in. Since his papa disappeared, the owner refused to let some 'orphaned riffraff' run off any paying customers. For a week he'd kept coming back, hoping to see his papa waiting for him with open arms, ready to take him home. But Papa wasn't going to take him home. He'd left, just like Mama had. But how could the boy blame them? Who would want a child with demon eyes? As the last rays of sunlight dried the tears on his face, the little boy felt something inside him dry up and die.

[Did you see him on the street
Did you pass him at your feet
Did you think at all
How dare he even look me in the eye]
Three months later, the boy sat on the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse and begged whoever passed for food, water, anything! Those who weren't deterred by his ratty clothes and dirt-smudged face, though, quickly turned from his red-on-black eyes. Ready to give up and find an alley to sleep in for the night, he suddenly saw a man staring at him from across the street. The man looked very well-off and had a strange smile on his face as he crossed the street to the now-standing boy.
"You look like you haven't eaten in some time, young man. Perhaps I could feed you and give you a place to....rest for the night?"
The man's hesitation went unnoticed by the boy who took the offered hand and allowed himself to be led to an uptown hotel.

[And he loves the girls
And he loves the boys
Gonna make
Twenty dollars 'fore the weekend's over]
The boy spent the weekend with the man and learned many things no eight-year-old child should know. But as he watched the man walk away from the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse, the boy tightly clutched the twenty dollar bill in his pocket and dwelled over the most important lesson: Money is everything.

[So set him up
Then let him fall
Turn him over in your hands
God save the king of New Orleans

Got a ticket to a show
Did you see him take a blow
When the drunk one said
Cat Stevens was the greatest singer]
Over the next three years, the boy learned the way of the dollar. He'd put on street shows, he picked fights with drunks, and he let people beat him up for whatever cash they could throw at him.

[Did you kick him in the head
Did you see the blood run down
Did you laugh at all
When the people walked right by and said aloud
Gutter punks, you're all the same
Gonna make
Twenty dollars 'fore the weekend's over]
And when a weekend loomed ahead with no food or shelter, he sold his body to the highest bidder.

[So set him up
Then let him fall
Turn him over in your hands
God save the king of New Orleans
Set him up
Let him fall
Turn him over in your hands
God save the King of New Orleans]
One day the eleven-year-old boy was challenged by a friend to pickpocket a man in a long brown trench coat. Never one to back down from a challenge, he went forward with his natural ease and grace to lighten the man's coat- only to find himself at the end of a very point knife. It was a set up.

[Radio in my head
Radio in my car
Goin' down again
He's goin' down... again]
The boy could see his life ending right before his eyes, but instead of feeling the kiss of cold steel, he felt himself being dragged into a nearby balck car with the radio blaring. Before he could ask what was going on, a clothe was pressed tightly over his mouth and nose and the blackness swallowed him whole.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

[Any way you look
Any way you talk it over
It's easier
To let it slip out of your mind]
Remy woke with a start, the ashes of his burned-out cigerette landing at his feet. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to wipe away the last remnants of his traitorous memory. But the images remained.

[But it rips your heart out
Then it kicks your head in
Just give him one more chance
Try and see the beauty in his world]
Jean-Luc Lebeau had taken him in, showed him the world of the Thieves Guild, and gave him a one-time offer to join.
"An' if I don't?" he had asked, though the riches of Jean-Luc's home had already convinced him to stay. Jean-Luc merely pulled out the knife he had used earlier, and no more was said.

[All the way in on my hands
In on my feet and shoulders
Gonna make
Twenty dollars 'fore the weekends over]
But those days were long gone, and Remy was an Acolyte. Remy smirked. He -used to be- one, anyway. With ol' Mags gone, he could do as he pleased. Standing up and stretching, Remy bumped into a businessman who simply cussed Remy out and kept on walking. Smirking, Remy went the other way, clutching a nice leather wallet in his hand.

[So set him up
Then let him fall
Turn him over in your hands
God save the king of New Orleans]
Maybe he should go back to New Orleans, catch up with some of his old buddies.....*Non,* he tought, eyeing a beautiful jade pendant in the window of a jewelry store, *Remy got a much better idea.*

[Set him up
Then let him fall
Turn him over in your hands
God save the king of New Orleans
Yeah]
The next morning, Rogue awoke to wind blowing across her face. She frowned, having distinctly remembered closing the window, and sat up with a start. Rushing to the window, she stared around the grounds and was about to alarm the others when something caught her eye. Lying on the windowsill was a velvet box. Inside it, Rogue found a beautiful jade pendant on top of ayinaying card: the King of Hearts.


--------------------

I hope everyone enjoyed this. I didn't originally intend for there to be any Romy, but I just couldn't help it. Please let me know what you think!

~Mac