The Hellfire Club, Emma's New York, Friday Evening.

[icecoldfrost]

The message had only said that Jack required distraction, and so Emma had gotten them seats for the most distracting thing available: The Annual New York After-Dark Burlesque Review, hosted at - of course - The Hellfire Club. Because if you were going for decadence, you needed the perfect backdrop

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[bitten_notshy]

Jack raised his eyebrows slightly as they came through the door. "You never do things halfway, do you, Ems?"

The truth was this was what he'd needed. Something so far from Fandom that he could pretend none of the horror of the dungeon had been real.

[icecoldfrost]

"Well," Emma quipped, hanging on his arm and throwing him a wink. "You wanted distracting, and it was this or Broadway. No one else is throwing parties tonight, and I refuse to get sucked in to the tourist trap."

"Besides; telepath. I am genetically incapable of doing something halfway. It is perfect or nothing."

[bitten_notshy]

"You're going to have to explain that one to me," Jack quibbled, bumping her shoulder with his own as he looked for the bar. "Why does being a telepath make you a perfectionist?"

[icecoldfrost]

"Because if I do it wrong, I remember that fact forever and it itches at the back of my brain," Emma answered melodramatically. "The joys of an almost-perfect endemic memory." Also, she was still a Frost. Being Imperfect was basically the cardinal sin.

She leaned in to nuzzle at his neck once they reached the bar. "Hank says it's not uncommon for telepaths to have perfectionist traits," she continued quietly, "it's just how we're wired."

"Now--" Emma pressed a quick kiss just below his ear. "May I buy the gentleman a drink?"

[bitten_notshy]

"You may do whatever you like to the gentleman, oh almost perfect one," Jack teased. (He wasn't certain Emma was quite as perfect as she thought she was, but he was hardly in the mood to challenge it.) "But a drink is a good start. How's the Scotch?"

[icecoldfrost]

"Ridiculously addicting and worth every drop," Emma promised as she gave the bartender a slight telepathic nudge to simply bring the Scotch immediately. "--and you had best watch those promises, Mr. Priest. Saying I can do 'whatever you like' is like giving me the keys to the candy store."

[bitten_notshy]

"I thought I did that a few years ago," Jack bantered in return. "Sadly, my ... candy shop is yours even if you smash the chocolates, rob the register, and mix the black jelly beans in with the purple ones."

The last was, of course, the most evil of them all.

He sipped at the scotch when it arrived, cocking an inquisitive eyebrow at Emma. The bartender had served them rather quickly, hadn't he?

[icecoldfrost]

Emma just beamed at him angelically as she raised her glass. "I would never smash chocolates," was her answer, "I'm not a heathen! Really, Jack."

"...Besides, candy stores offered up while in the Hellfire Club tend to lean towards a more..." Emma, don't look at Jack like he's a piece of meat, it's rude. "...thorough pillaging than other shops."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack coughed a laugh into his fist. "I think you may have confused candy shops with some other kind of store," he informed her, and gestured vaguely toward one of the dancers. "Though I wouldn't mind a good rummage through his sample bins, so to speak."

[icecoldfrost]

Emma just laughed, and let the bartender top off her drink as she glanced over to the dancer Jack had indicated. "Well," she said, "Let's go pick one of the little tables for two, where we can enjoy the show."

And eventually he might tell her why he needed the distraction, or he might not. Emma was fine with either.

Then the dancer did a back-bend, and Emma fanned herself. "Wow. Those are some nice goods in his sample bin."

[bitten_notshy]

"Mmmm. Big, but I have a feeling it might just be pumped up with air," Jack said lightly. He sipped his drink again, enjoying the burn of it as he sought out a table.

"How's that one?" he asked, pointing. "Close enough to watch the chocolates being made, so to speak, but not so close we're likely to be put to work."

[icecoldfrost]

"Put to work?" Emma asked, disbelieving, as she started towards their selected table. "Believe it or not, I've never been to a burlesque show - how on earth would they put us to work?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Maybe it's something they don't do here," Jack said, halfway apologetic. "At home the tables near the stage are the ones where the dancers try to make you part of the show. I'm not in the mood."

[icecoldfrost]

"Good, since I was planning on saving my strip-tease to be a private event for you," Emma answered cheerfully, not really caring if anyone was listening. It was the Hellfire Club, after all. Everyone was talking about similar activities, or something equally debauched. "I'm hoping to get a few ideas for this weekend, but I'd rather not be on display."

[bitten_notshy]

"I earned a strip-tease?" Jack asked equally unbothered by the fact they were in public. Really, if someone at Hellfire had nothing better to eavesdrop on that wasn't his problem. "I'm touched. And glad you aren't upset the island kept me out of touch for a week."

[icecoldfrost]

"Oh, I'm furious that I couldn't get through for a week," Emma admitted. "But yelling at you is usually counter-productive to getting what I want, so I'm going with bribery."