There were two kinds of New Year's parties at the Xavier Institute. The children threw their own, some chaperoned, some not, but all with the tacit approval of the staff. The twenty or so cliques of the school all commandeered various locations on the grounds and had whatever kind of soiree most appealed to them. An unlucky telepath or living computer on the teaching staff was always given the job of watching them all at once, making sure nothing got too out of hand, but otherwise, it was seen as a way for the students to let off some steam.
The second was the formal party held inside the mansion, celebrities, superheroes, and well-wishers showing up to see how civilized the mutants could be. Jean wished she was at the first. Underage drinking would at least offer her a respite from seeing Emma hanging off Scott, wearing perhaps her sheerest dress yet, letting everyone see why Scott had stayed with her while Jena was back among the living.
Jean felt like she was some Amazon tribeswoman as a tour group went through. Emma and Scott worked well together, showing off all the dazzling accomplishments of their mutant prodigies—the artwork, the inventions, the thankful mementos from lives saved. Jean wondered what any of them would say if they knew how the perfect mutant couple spent their nights: Emma a pimp, Scott a john, being sucked off through a glory hole by women who Emma had made a sport of debasing.
Jean had had no idea. No idea that Scott could be twisted into what Emma had made of him. This smooth, glad-handing man who still smelled of her, but who effortlessly manipulated, lied, killed, whatever it took. Emma's love had been like a scalpel. She'd gone in and removed all the things Jean loved about him. All traces of her in Scott, his redheaded girl who'd put the first fingerprints on his heart.
And she'd loved him. Loved him because no matter how she changed, how she evolved, how she became, Scott was always the same. Solid. Reliable. Stiff and square and everything they said he was, but not mutable, never mutable like Bobby or Warren or Hank. No wonder she'd chosen him. Her life had been flying apart from the moment she'd gotten her powers. She chose to build her new one on bedrock.
Her distress must have been so great, even Scott felt it across the gaping chasm where their psychic bond had lay. He detached himself from Emma with a kiss to her cheek, and she took over the frantic tour: like us, like us, please like us wonderful, useful, creative mutants, oh so pretty we are...
Scott brought her a drink. Cherry schnapps. Her favorite. He still remembered. He was with Emma and he still knew everything about her. "We can talk."
"We can not. You're good at that."
The tour moved on, milling and gossiping. They could catch up with them in the dining room, where they'd eat the finest mutant cuisine since Genosha had been wiped clean.
She took the drink before it hurt him. It tasted good. After all these years—still her favorite. "You're with her, Scott. You didn't choose me."
"That's not true."
"How is it not true?"
"I choose you. And I choose her."
"And whoever might kneel in front of a glory hole on any given night?"
"Yes." His ruby quartz glasses had never looked so blank. "I know what you have with Logan. It doesn't change what we have. Why should this?"
"Nothing happened with Logan!"
"Why not? Would it change how you feel about me?"
Jean tossed the drink aside, only her conscientious mind catching it and setting it on a chest of drawers. She walked away from him. He followed. "She's changed you, Scott. You're some... sex toy to her!"
"She was there when you left."
"I died."
"I didn't. And she didn't. She showed me how there's more to love than making things stay the same. Than going back to the way things were."
"What was wrong with being married to me?"
"We weren't happy."
"I was happy!"
"Then why'd you die?"
"Because you let me!"
Dinner was served then. Jean heard the telepathic summons.
All throughout the entrees, Jean pushed her mind through their psychic bond like she was needling a split lip with her tongue. She felt Emma's foot on his calf, the dainty toes traveling up, up, but never making it to his cock.
Saving that for later.