xp_logs | Remy and Marie-Ange

Backdated to Aug 4th. Marie-Ange and Remy talk about Operation: Winter Soldier, and Operation: Red Letter Day, and other events.

For all that Marie-Ange had her own office, she was in it a lot less than she had expected. In part because she'd spent more time in Germany and Russia and London lately than in the office and in part because while Remy was gone she'd taken over half his contact list and dumped the rest on everyone else and so she'd spent a lot of time going through files and papers in -his- office, which just felt like spying on someone, but in the rudely intrusive personal way.

She knocked on the open office door to find him going over papers, and feigned a sheepish expression. "If those are expense reports, all the strange purchases are directly my fault. I told myself not to be so ridiculous in the future, but I did not listen."

"You know, Remy looked at dem, and de set of Manolo Balhniks would have been a much cheaper gift for Vazhin den half our network in Russia." He quirked an eyebrow at her over the file he was reading. "Just tell me dat you didn't end up having to sleep wit him."

Marie-Ange shook her head. "No, I was going to ask Wanda to do that if things fell through. She seemed more his type. Besides, I think I am over my limit for sleeping with older men with power, no?" She hadn't told most of X-Force about sleeping with Daniel Boudreaux, but Remy knew, and she'd have told him anyway. "Too much of that, it becomes a habit."

"Never dangle sex at Vazhin. De man was de king of de honeytrap, and turned more swivelhipped spies into double agents den de CIA care to remember." Remy said by way of professional experience. "We hurt dere, but de cost could have been higher. You done well."

"I am going to tell Wanda you said she was swivelhipped." Marie-Ange edged into the room and sat down with a considerable lack of grace into the other chair. "Only because I held out, and lied. Vazhin knew I was not giving him all of our network in Russia, yes? Because I cannot get a read on him and if I never have to try to negioitate with that man again as long as I live it will be too soon. I am not sure I did well though. Remy, I dumped half a network and all I got for it was a metal arm in a box under my desk."

"Based on de information at hand, I would have made de same deal. Maybe a little different, but Vazhin knows how hard he can push me and likewise." Remy leaned back in the chair and Laced his fingers, the ring still seeming out of place. "Dis job is about being wrong for de right reasons more often den not. You need to learn to accept dat fact."

"How long did it take for you to accept it?" Marie-Ange asked. "Or maybe not you, because you were, ah, not quite you, but Pete or Betsy? I still feel like I am making it up as I go on half the time." Despite the precognition - she couldn't predict everything, justh the major notes and not even that most of the time.

"Everyone is different, Marie-Ange." he said gently. "Six years ago you were a dedicated pacifist. Now, you arranged a killing of an innocent and highly dangerous man, spent six months in de bed of an assassin and den sold out a network. You tell me when you ready to accept it."

Marie-Ange was quiet for a few moments, thinking. "Six years ago I was watching Amanda almost turn into another Selene and chose not to warn her. If you are saying I need to accept doing wrong things for the right reason, I think I had that quite down in 2005. I just... how much of this is luck and how much is being good at it? Because I think I got lucky, in Russia."

"Luck matters. De best agents make de wrong turn and die wit'out doing anything wrong. Dis is not a nice business." Remy shook his head. "So when you get lucky, count it as a win and go home happy."

"That is what I thought you might say." Marie-Ange said. "I would ask if you have gone home happy but I think the ring says that already, no?" She couldn't help smiling, it was absurdly romantic. "I think you eloped so that none of us would make you watch the movie with the muppet prawns again."

"Remy didn't elope. Technically, de only place dat Remy legally exist is in de town rolls for Beaumont-les-Bains. So us getting married dere is 'bout de only place it wouldn't count as eloping." He gave her a smile. "Also, dat's where 'ro asked me."

Marie-Ange's pout was only half sincere. "I did not get to go to the wedding, so I am saying it is an elopement. No one has weddings anymore, they just go off to get married in places where I am not, and how am I supposed to use a wedding as an excuse to go shopping if people keep not having weddings?" Grateful for the reassurance, and the fact that Remy wasn't yelling at her for Russia, and that he was back and whole and recovering and happy, she was content to make jokes.

"Guess you going to need to take care of it youself and go find someone to marry." Remy gave her an encouraging nod. "Dat way, Remy just have to worry 'bout finding de free bar."

"We are more likely to marry off my cousin." Marie-Ange suggested. "And if that happens I will be joining you at the bar." She stood up and made her way to the door. "You know I would have given Vazhin every contact we had if it meant he had any information on you, yes? I do not care if you would have yelled at me."

"I know. But I also know dat one day, dat's a deal you won't make, no matter how much you might want to." Remy said softly. "Dat's de day its you in dis chair all de time."

"I think I will take this one awful step at a time, and not think about that one for a little while." Marie-Ange said, looking over her shoulder. "I am still human enough to not want to abandon the people I care about, and I sort of like it that way."

"Dats de wrong way to look at it." Remy caught her was his gaze, and she'd forgotten just how intense he could make that red on black stare. "One day, it's not going to be just a network or a friend. It's going to be millions of lives that you'll make the hard decision in order to save."

"As I said, one awful step at a time, yes?" Marie-Ange said. "Even if I could make that decision now." And she suspected she could. "I do not like to admit it. If I wanted I could probably tell you when I would be at that desk, and I do not want to just yet." Precognition made worrying about the future trickier sometimes when it was your friends and teammates who were always at risk.

Remy got up from his desk and walked over. Despite the fact that their heights weren't far off, he reached out and tilted her head and laid a kiss on her forehead. "Thank you. Without you, I wouldn't have been proposed to by a woman I love more den anything."

Marie-Ange actually blushed. "Tell no one, but I may have shrieked a little when Amanda told us you and Ororo had gotten married."