When she was able, Jean dressed and left Scott's quarters, thinking it had been a very long time since she had done the walk of shame in yesterday's clothes. She both liked and disliked the taste of her youth.
The power of the Phoenix, suppressed as it was, left her able to recover before Emma, but she wasn't in any mood to lord it over the White Queen. Their rivalry, as perversely enjoyable as it was, was now a free for all with Betsy in the mix.
It was obvious Jean had no exclusive claim on Scott. She wasn't his first love now, not with the man he'd become. After how she'd toyed with him, playing with his and Logan's affections, she couldn't even be upset. She wasn't irrational enough to ignore the irony. She wasn't the Dark Phoenix.
Ororo caught her as she walked the halls of the school. The mutant known as Storm looked as staggeringly beautiful as ever, her simple yet graceful costume emphasizing her elegance while leaving alone her exotic sexuality to glimmer on its own.
She wore a simple black unitard finished with silver, a becoming cape flowing off her shoulders and holding onto her bracelets, with thigh-high boots and her stylized headdress completing the ensemble. The plunging neckline of her costume displayed her proud breasts to tasteful excess, while her cape hid the luscious bottom Jean knew her friend to possess, teasing any viewer with bare, firm thighs under a skintight crotch. The final effect was completely natural in its sensuality. Jean could see how Storm was viewed as both divine and yet powerfully sexual by the many who were charmed by her.
Or perhaps her judgment was just impaired by the perversion Scott and their new power dynamic had driven her to. She had never thought of Ororo in such terms before...
"Good morning, Jean." Ororo frowned, seeing the turmoil within Jean. She had none of Jean's psychic abilities, but with her insight and tenderness, she often seemed more sensitive than Jean was. "Is something bothering you? You seem unwell."
"I'm fine. Just a long night," Jean said.
"Yes, I imagine it must be difficult, seeing Scott with Emma after all you've shared."
Jean managed a sickly smile. "You have no idea."
"Perhaps you could come to the garden with me. I was about to water my plants. You could take a moment and collect yourself."
"Alright, 'ro. Why not?"
Jean followed Ororo up several flights of stairs to what had once been the mansion's attic, but after several remodels and reconstructions, it was now essentially built from the ground up as a greenhouse to be Ororo's personal botanical playpen. Jean closed the door behind her and locked it, not so much for the sake of modesty, for Ororo had little, but that so no wandering student happened upon Ororo while she watered her plants in the way she was accustomed to.