Work Text:
Rogue’s standing against the wall just next to the front door of the Manhattan apartment she shares with her husband, Gambit. She’s waiting for him to return home so she can catch him before he gets too far into the house.
Don’t need him ruining the surprise.
She presses her back against the wall harder and wrings the necktie in her hands. He’d texted to say he was on his way back 20 minutes ago. He should be here any second now.
Another few minutes go by, and without any warning, damn his thief’s feet, a key is fit into the lock of their door and it flies open.
“Mon cœur! I’m home!” Gambit calls out as he steps through the front door, kicking it closed behind himself.
And Rogue pounces, quickly stepping up behind him and tying the necktie over his eyes.
“...And blind?” he says with a light chuckle. He goes to push the blindfold up so he can peek at her, but Rogue swats his hand away.
“Ah-ah! Don’t need you spoiling the surprise.”
“What’s this?” He smirks. “Surprise?”
Rogue helps him get his coat off and hangs it up for him. “You know what today is?”
Gambit pretends to ponder the question. “Ain’t my birthday, that be next month. Ain’t yours, ain’t Christmas… Earth Day?” he tries, still smirking.
“It’s our anniversary, sugar.”
His smirk grows into a full grin. “How could I forget?”
Rogue takes his hand and starts leading him through their apartment towards the kitchen. “And I wanted to do something nice for you.”
Gambit sniffs then as he finally smells something cooking. “And we be having pizza for dinner again?” he jokes.
“You’re never gonna let me live that down, are you?”
“Nope.” He laughs. “Chѐre, there ain’t a mess too big for me to see,” he says, softer, getting the wrong impression from the blindfold apparently.
“Oh, ye of little faith,” Rogue says as she pulls one of the chairs at the dining table out and maneuvers Gambit around until he’s sitting in it. “That ain’t why you’re blindfolded.”
“It ain’t?” he says, smirking again. “Care to share just why ma belle femme wants me blindfolded?” he asks suggestively then.
“Hush now.” Rogue waves her hand in front of his face, and satisfied that he can’t see through the blindfold, she smiles. “You’re gonna ruin your surprise.”
She goes to the stove where supper is simmering away in the pot still. She ladles some into a bowl, grabs a spoon, and returns to the table, seating herself in the chair across from Gambit.
“You remember not so long ago when you bragged about how sophistiqué your palate was?” she asks innocently.
“Yeah?” he says, looking at her so directly she’s not so sure now that he can’t see through the blindfold.
“Well, we're gonna put that to the test.”
“Oh? And what do you want me to taste for you, chѐre?” he asks, slowly wetting his lips with his tongue.
Rogue gets distracted for a second by the flicker of the pink tip disappearing behind his lips again. She watches a lazy smile spread across his face as he takes her silence as a victory. She scowls and shakes her head to refocus.
“You’re gonna tell me what I fixed for supper.”
“That all?” He seems disappointed. “Ain’t no challenge there.” But then his lips quirk up again. “What I get if I guess right?”
Rogue rolls her eyes even though he can’t see it. Of course he wants to make this into a gamble. “I don’t know. What do you want?”
“Oh, I have a list, chѐre,” he says, chuckling.
“I look like Santa Clause? Come on now, you get one thing.” And Rogue’s expecting pretty much anything else than what he says.
“A kiss?” Gambit asks sincerely, tilting his head just so in a way that she finds ridiculously endearing, and if there was ever a time that Rogue couldn’t remember how much she loves him, now is not it.
“Deal,” she answers softly, fighting the urge to just forget the whole thing and grab him and kiss him immediately.
“And what you get if I get it wrong?” he asks then, back to his usual playful rakishness.
Rogue considers a moment, and then she leans forward and reaches her hands behind his head to tighten the knot on the blindfold. “You gotta wear this all night long,” she whispers next to his ear before she pulls away again, smiling.
Gambit looks devastated. “You a cruel woman, Rogue.”
“You love it,” she says, stirring her spoon around in the bowl sitting between them. “‘Sides, thought you said this’d be a cake walk for you.”
He doesn’t answer and just pouts as he looks like he may be regretting some things. Like when he’d boasted that he could pick out just about any ingredient by taste alone.
“You ready?” she asks, stifling a laugh at the look on his face as she holds the spoon up.
He huffs a breath and then opens his mouth wide in response.
Rogue gently places the spoon inside his mouth. He wraps his lips around it, and she pulls the silver back out again, the bowl of the spoon catching a little against the corners of his mouth.
She watches as he slowly chews, his jaw working as he thinks.
Gambit swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Chicken.”
Rogue nods but then realizes that he can’t see it. “Good. Get anything else?” she asks.
He shakes his head, swipes his tongue across his lips again. “Give me another.”
So Rogue gets some more soup on her spoon, blows on it gently to cool it down some, and then offers it to him again, resting the edge of the spoon against his plush bottom lip.
He takes it into his mouth and sucks at it before she pulls the spoon away again.
The second one comes to him easily. “Garlic.” But then he furrows his brows, knitting them together just above where his blindfold sits. “Thyme?”
Rogue smiles. He’s pretty good. “Yup. What else?”
Gambit licks over his teeth but can’t get any more from that spoonful. “Again,” he asks.
So she swirls the spoon around the bowl, tries to get what’s settled on the bottom, and then holds the spoon in front of his mouth.
He goes to take it into his mouth again, but Rogue pulls it back just the tiniest bit. He leans further forward, and she pulls it back again, watching as she makes him chase the spoon, his lips slightly parted and glistening.
Leaning halfway across the table, he finally realizes what she’s doing. “Chѐre…” he admonishes, smirking a little. “You teasing me?”
“Who, me?” Rogue laughs and lets him have it finally, and he slips his mouth down around the spoon’s handle and quickly slides back again before she can pull it loose, a quiet wet pop! as the spoon falls free from his lips.
His smirk grows when he hears Rogue’s breath quicken. He chews, the soup dissolving on his tongue. “That a little bit of tomato in there?”
Slightly breathless, Rogue nods again before she remembers. “Uh-huh.”
Practically grinning now, Gambit says, “Hit me again,” and Rogue considers thumping him on the top of his head with the spoon, just to knock that smug look off his face.
But she only gathers more soup into her spoon and holds it out to him again. She doesn’t tease him with it this time, resting it against his lips like before. But he doesn’t immediately take it into his mouth. He begins just barely moving his head side to side, smearing his lips against the back of the spoon, coating them in the dark braised liquid.
Rogue stares as a single drop runs down his chin.
Good Lord, this man’s going to be the death of her yet.
Gambit finally takes the spoon into his mouth, sucking on it before letting her pull it free. He runs his tongue all around the inside of his mouth, pressing it against the insides of his cheeks.
He licks the soup off his lips, his tongue swiping down to catch what had strayed, before smacking his lips. “Wine. Red. This what you asked me to grab that Burgundy for last week?”
Rogue’s still staring at his mouth. “Maybe.”
He smirks again. “Think I almost got it. Just one more, chѐre.”
And Rogue returns the spoon to the bowl, stirs it around, and then brings it to her own mouth. She takes a bite, savoring the warmth of the dish a moment, the meaty herbalness of it, and still with a little soup on her lips, she leans forward across the table and kisses Gambit, pressing their lips together softly, their wager forgotten.
She pulls back after a few seconds, and Gambit runs his tongue over his lips to get the last of what she left there before smiling. “Coq au vin?”
Rogue sighs and reaches up to untie the blindfold. “See for yourself.”
She takes the blindfold away, and he looks down into the bowl.
Chicken, garlic, thyme, and wine all there. Coq au vin.
“I be right?” he says like he’s surprised at himself. He looks over at the stove then where the pot’s sitting, and the counter where she’s got a cookbook spread open. He looks back at Rogue, “You been listening to Miss Child again, ain’t you?”
Eyes half-lidded and leaning across the table still, she brings her hand up to pet through his hair. “You know it.”
Gambit chuckles. “Can’t go wrong with her. Y’know, first recipe–”
“What else you got on that list of yours?” Rogue interrupts suddenly.
He shakes his head. “Don’t remember,” he says, his dark eyes drinking her in now that he can see her without the blindfold. “I left it in my other pants,” he confesses jokingly.
Rogue leans in to kiss him again, his lips soft and pliant under hers after the warm soup.
She pulls away, and Gambit blinks a couple times. “Hold on. It’s coming back to me.”
“What if I got me a list, too…” Rogue dips her spoon into the bowl of soup, puts it into her mouth, and then pulls it out, slow and seductive, “...and feeding you soup ain’t the only thing on it?” she says coyly, licking at the back of the spoon, her tongue curling around the edges.
Gambit stares at her, eyes following each lave of her tongue, and a smile slowly splits his face. “Then I’d say maybe it was time I gave you your anniversary gift, chѐre.”
She drops the spoon back into the bowl with a light clatter before leaning in like she’s going to kiss him again, hovering her lips just over his. Gambit tries to capture them between his, but she keeps pulling back just out of his reach. “And what might that be, sugar?” she asks softly.
“Tell you and ruin your surprise? Non. You gotta guess, too." This close, she can see the flecks of different shades of red in his eyes like chipped rubies. “Fifth year,” he leans forward until he can press the last word against her lips, “Wood.”
Rogue pulls away with a snort and Gambit laughs. “Shameless,” she chides, but she can’t help the stupid smile on her face. “You keep that up and I’ll put that tie on your mouth.”
Gambit holds a hand to his chest, scandalized. “Non! You wouldn’t.”
“Would, too. Might even get one for your hands on top of it.”
“I take it back. You ain’t cruel, Rogue. You evil,” he says, cracking a smile.
She laughs before standing up and leaning down to kiss him lovingly. She pulls away and slides the bowl of soup over in front of him. “Happy anniversary, Remy,” she says sweetly.
He picks up the spoon in one hand and looks up at her with a soft, adoring look. “Happy anniversary, chѐre.”