DISCLAIMER: Kev, Mike Anderson, Juliet and Lizzie, are mine (mineminemine I tell you! No don't take them from me!) Gambit belongs to Marvel.

This is in response to JB McDonald's Challenge, although I wrote most of this before then, and it's a little more then 1000 words (1162 to be exact). This is also my Father's Day gift to my own dad (pretty cheap gift huh?).

Marpiya Wakankdi na Kimimi:
Father's Day
By Raven Adams


Remy looked forlornly at the fathers and their children playing in the park. It had been nine years since he celebrated his last Father's Day. Either the one for himself, or the one for his own father.

Hard to believe none of the X-Men ever noticed that he wasn't around on this day once a year. But he always wanted to be alone. To pull out the picture he had taken with him on the day he left New Orleans behind him forever. It was of all three of them together; Juliet use to keep it on the nightstand by their bed.

It was Lizzie sitting on the floor, her first lock open in her hands. Juliet was sitting beside her, her hands clapping, the biggest smile on her face. And he was sitting on the couch behind them both. Trying to keep his best poker face on, but even in the picture, you could see it wasn't working. That he was more proud of his little girl then he could ever explain.

It was all written on his face.

He sat on the park bench looking at the picture for the longest time. He thought of Lizzie often, and wondered what she would look like today. Would his Petite Belle, as he had been fond of calling her, look like her mother? Long straight black hair, tall and graceful like a ballerina, and have the voice of a nightingale? Would she recognize him? He hadn't changed all that much, as far as he could tell, but would he look the same to an eighteen year old as he had a nine year old?

He had bought her a guitar some years ago, for her first birthday after they had left. He couldn't quite remember where he'd gotten it from 1, but he still had it. Still wrapped in it's ribbons and bows in the top of his closet. Rogue had asked about it once, but he had shrugged her off, giving her the excuse that he didn't want to talk about it.

He had looked for them, still looked for them, but Juliet could be anywhere now, and he wouldn't know where to begin to look for Lizzie. Recently, he'd looked to thefts, but the only one he thought could be her was the infamous Raven thief, the one who always leaves a large black and blue feather at the scene of the crime. But the feather has been confirmed to belong to a mutant, and Gambit was sure his Petite Belle wouldn't have grown wings of any sort.

He sighed as he watched fathers feeding ducks with their daughters, or flying kites. Or pretty much anything, they were doing it together. What had they done on the last Father's Day she had been with him? Oh, that big mansion with the silver and gold thread rugs. They had stolen a necklace, which he had given to Juliet.

He knew he should be spending this day with Kev, but he really didn't think he could pull himself out of his misery long enough to be happy with the boy.

So he sat there, lost in the past and his own misery.

Kevin sat in the tree watching his adopted father look at a picture. He cocked his head, wondering why Remy had decided to spend Father's Day sitting in the park by himself. Even Kev's real father used to spend Father's Day with him, so he didn't understand.

But Remy hadn't noticed him as he followed him to the park, even though Rogue had told him to let Remy go by himself, but Kev had his father's day gift to give him. One for Rogue too, even though it wasn't mother's day. He had stayed up all night trying to think of what to give Remy. It had to be something special, because this was the first Father's Day they would spend together.

Now all he had to do was find away to give it to him.

The man watched the little boy shimmy down the tree. Kevin was a miniature version of him, with the same color light red-brown hair, the same dimple in the cleft of their chins, the same nose that curved just a tiny bit upward at the end. The only thing Kevin hadn't inherited from his father were the cold steel blue eyes. He had, instead, his mother's blue-green ones.

The boy walked hesitantly to a man sitting on a bench, and the man quickly moved to intercept him.

"U-Uncle Remy?" Kev asked softly. Remy didn't hear him, he said it so low, but when he went to say it again, a shadow passed over him, and a hand grabbed his arm, turning him around. Kev cried out, which did get Remy's attention, and he was over the back of the bench in a second, a glowing red card in his hand.

He grabbed Kevin's other arm, and pulled him away from the man. The man only looked down at Kev, smiling, and Kev moved closer to Remy.

"What? You can't say hello to your father?" Mark Anderson asked, holding out his arms to Kev, as though really expecting him to come to him.

Without hesitating, Remy dropped his card, and punched the man in the face.

"No don't!" Kev cried out, rushing to his father's side as the man fell to the ground.

Remy was hurt, watching as the man pulled Kev into a bear hug. It looked like Kev hugged him back slightly--he was trying to pull away--and Remy turned around and started to walk away.

Kev pulled back from his father, whose eyes shown brightly with happiness. "You're coming home with me, and we'll be a family again... No! A real family this time. I promise, Kev."

Kev looked down at him, biting his lip. He really wanted to believe that was true, but how many times had his father said something almost exactly like that every time he'd quit drinking, only to start back again.

"I..." He looked at Remy walking slowly away, his head hung down, and jumped up, running after him. "Uncle Remy?" he asked. Remy turned around and looked past Kev to where his father was slowly getting to his feet. "Dad? Can we go home?" Kev asked, Remy's shoulders slumped. Then Kev's hand came into his own. He looked down. Kev looked him in the eye. "Dad? Can we go home?"

A girl with green eyes, which slowly turned gray, stood behind a tree as she watched Remy hug Kev. Her hair was long, straight, jet black, with a stripe of blue all the way down. She was wearing some sort of uniform, black and blue to match her hair, with a short, light brown coat with CMS and a bird stitched onto the sleeve.

She smiled slightly, and wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. He had a family now, what would he need her for?

Okay, okay, I know I should have ended it with "Dad? Can We go home?" But I just had to add Lizzie to it (You'll see why soon enough)

(1) This was talked about in Chap 12 of The Sun Will Shine Again

Oh, remember, "Feedback to writers is like water to flowers, so water a writer today (hint hint)

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