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[neveraskedtwice]

Three days after her arrival, Emma really just wants something to punch. Granted, she's heard Jean Grey's around and Jean would do nicely, but she's not about to actively seek that bitch out, not in this lifetime or any other. She would much rather keep to herself. That MacTaggert woman and a dozen other scientists are working on their problem, and

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[risesagain]

"I am not your dear," Jean replies coolly. She knows that avoiding Emma forever is not a likely possibility on an island of a certain size and limited population.

But it's still a nice thing to wish for. Buttoning the bottom buttons of her green cardigan, she smiles tightly. "I'm well past gloating, Emma. That sort of thing is for children."

Not slutty mistresses who needed to make her ex husband happy lest the world end. They don't count.

[neveraskedtwice]

"And you're certainly not one of those now, are you?"

It's all been cleared up - inasmuch as that's at all possible, of course - the whole business of different times, but Emma can't help being pleased to find Jean's the one further down the line now. In a strange way, she's glad to see Jean here as well. If she has to be trapped in a powerless hell, at least she's not the only one suffering. Besides, she's already bored.

[risesagain]

It is amazing how quickly her patience with the blonde former telepath begins to wear thin. She's not about to crack and give in to the mild picking that is happening, but part of her wants to make Emma suffer.

Jeans knows exactly which part that it is and why it is cheering her on. Resisting temptation, she folds her arms across her chest. "No. I'm not. But someone has to be the adult around here."

[neveraskedtwice]

"Well, we all know you're more mature," Emma says, nodding in an offhand way. She's watching closely, though, inspecting Jean for any little sign she's getting to her. With or without her powers, she's good at reading people, but Jean's always a cipher. "How is it even the mighty Phoenix finds herself stranded somewhere like this?"

She's not looking for a fight, but then again, she can't say she'd mind if one found her.

[risesagain]

It could be the clothes or even the lack of trying-so-hard-to-hidden wrinkles but something tells Jean that this isn't the same former Queen who she caught mentally and literally screwing her husband.

But she doesn't feel like prying for timeline details or giving in just now. "The same way I assume you did, except mine involved a great deal more Shi'ar warships and you dolled up in red."

[neveraskedtwice]

There's something comforting about that, too. Loathe as Emma is to admit it, Jean is powerful and if she can't break out of here, if even her powers and life have been put on hold - well, it's a little less embarrassing that she's in the same boat (and makes getting out twice as appealing).

"Sounds positively thrilling," she says, examining her fingernails. "I do look good in red."

[risesagain]

"Trust me, it's really not your color."

If it is anyone's, it is Jean's but she'd rather not talk about her penchant to live the Phoenix lifestyle when she can avoid it. Emma makes the whole subject worth avoiding and then some.

"So tell me, Emma, from when do you join us from? Still shaking your thing for Sebastian?"

[neveraskedtwice]

Emma tips her head to the side, arching an eyebrow at Jean as she lifts her gaze from her nails. "Done and dead, Jean dear," she sighs. "I'm playing on the side of the angels now. Xavier has me teaching - or had, up until a few days ago."

Jean doesn't get more detail than that.

[risesagain]

That gives away something at least. It's not exactly a full color picture, but Jean knows that this an Emma who hasn't gone all soft and fuzzy around her backstabbing little edges.

That's oddly comforting. "Ah, teaching. I'll never understand Professor X's logic on that, but he's right more often than wrong. Go figure."

[neveraskedtwice]

"Careful," Emma says, making a tutting sound. "That almost sounded like a vote of confidence." In Xavier, yes, but that means inherently in her, as well, and Emma means her warning entirely. She knows Xavier is right about her. From him, she even appreciates it. She doesn't need Jean Grey's approval.

[risesagain]

"Trust me, it wasn't."

Jean would give her vote of in confidence in Emma in terms of one category alone: the ability to do things that were utterly self-serving. Typically those things ruined everyone else's lives but the woman did know how to get things done.

[neveraskedtwice]

"Thank God for that," Emma says. "It's nice to know some things never change, no matter how many years go by."

There really is, though, a certain comfort in the status quo, here with everything turned on its head. If there's one thing Emma knows how to do, it's survive a rocky situation and still come out on top, but that doesn't mean she takes pleasure in this particular one.

[risesagain]

"Oh, I wouldn't say that."

She knows exactly what Emma is prodding at and Jean isn't about to bite any time soon. At least not at that sort of bait. She's always been the more mature of the two, even if Emma does go for a few nips and tucks every now and then.

"Things change plenty. Yourself included."

[neveraskedtwice]

God, Emma hates it when Jean has the upper hand. Loathe though she is to admit it, too, that's most of the time.

Emma's changed a lot over the years - and not just cosmetically, of course - but that doesn't keep her from wondering just what Jean means by that. That she knows that's just what Jean wants is incredibly galling.

"I often do," she says, sounding bored. "Adaptability is a virtue, Jean - one of the few I possess in spades. So what, are you just dying to play the Ghost of Christmas Future and lecture me on things I've yet to do?"

[risesagain]

That is supposed to be something of a pun and Jean knows it. She also has the advantage of having heard the same thing before a thousand times over. Rocks fall, Jean dies that sort of thing.

It's gets old very fast.

"I am out of the lecture business," she says with a smile. It's easy to put Emma off her guard by playing nice. "I'm glad that you've decided to name that particular talent, even if it is a misnomer."

[neveraskedtwice]

Emma doesn't trust a smile like that. It doesn't appear to be hiding anything, but that's all the more reason to believe it does - least of all in Jean. She's the kind of woman who seems all sweetness and light, but if anything, that just makes her more dangerous.

"And what would you call it then?"