Emma/Yvette: Common Ground

[x-celsis.livejournal.com]

 

Emma Frost loved heights. More specifically, she loved falling from high places. It wasn't commonly known, but at least part of her fierce love for Frost Enterprises was the fact that she regularly got to fly in very, very fast planes and, on reasonably regular occasions, jump out of them. There was something about letting go of everything, of losing control and letting oneself fall and fall and fall, knowing that your survival depended on making the choice to pull the ripcord. For Emma, it was a choice made anew each time, a defiant yes to life.

So she didn't find it particularly odd to be sitting in the high branches of a very tall tree outside Xavier's, waiting for someone.

The woods were still a haven for Yvette, even with the warmer weather causing more of her fellow students to go outside. There were still places none of them went to, places she could strip off the gloves and socks and roll her sleeves and leggings up, feeling the earth under her long-clawed toes, her hands biting into soft wood and scraping off stone... These were moments of true freedom, where she could relax and let her mutation go fully, enjoy the faintest whisper of the breeze against hardened skin, the coolness of water when she paddled in a small stream. Eyes glowing brightly blue, she crouched on a fallen log, panting a little from the half-run, half-scramble that had brought her to this point.

"They're wonderful, aren't they?" said Emma, and smiled as glowing blue points suddenly focussed on her from the darkness of the woods below. Pushing against the tree-trunk she leapt out from the tree, plummeting downwards towards the ground in a fantastic rush of air and flight and the scent of green things. She flickered to diamond as she landed, driving herself deep into the leaf-mould and the soft ground. It only took her a second to extract herself and turn back to flesh and face the red girl who crouched before her. "The woods, I mean."

 

Yvette had started as the woman had spoken, hands and feet leaving deep gouges in the wood of the log. Her initial instinct was to flee, but as she watched her turn into diamond, she remembered Paige doing the same thing the day she'd awoken, coming to find her. "Y-yes," she stuttered, a little nervously as she tried to remember who the woman might be. "I like to come here often. I am sorry, I do know think I know who you are?"

 

"That's because I've been rude and not introduced myself," smiled Emma. "My name is Emma. I used to live in the Mansion but I don't spend much time there now." Her smile turned into a wicked grin. "I would say that you can trust me, but that would be a lie. I can assure you, however, that I'd never hurt you."
 

Yvette tilted her head. What a strange thing to say. "Yvette," she replied. "I am pleased to meet you, Miss Emma. You were the student here, perhaps?" Although she didn't add the part where she thought Emma would have had to have been a student at the same time as Dr. Jean.

 

Emma threw back her head and laughed. "I was a teacher," she said. "A long time ago. And I'm sorry, Yvette, for saying such strange things. I'm feeling playful, you see. I've been wanting to meet you for some time now and I'm delighted that I finally have." She gestured around her. "And the woods are beautiful and the sun is shining and today . . . well, today is good day. Don't you think so?"
 

The small girl settled a little onto her log, toes relaxing slightly out of the wood. "It is," she agreed, reassured by the 'I was a teacher' line - Xavier's teachers did tend to be odd, after all. "But please, why would you be wanting to meet me? I am not so important."

"I should hope not," replied Emma. "One shouldn't be important at your age. Interesting, however, is another story." She leaned back against the tree. "They probably never told you how I came to Xavier's. I was his enemy, you know. Or perhaps rival is the better term. I had my own school, you see. But it . . ." Emma stopped for a moment, then re-started. "It closed down. When that happened, my secondary mutation manifested." She smiled at Yvette, but it was not a particularly happy smile. "I came to Xavier's in a coma, made of diamond."
 

Yvette's head snapped up and she stared intently at Emma. "But... that is how I am coming here," she said. "The coma, the hard skin..." A small smile escaped her. "I think I am starting to understand now how it is I am interesting."
 

"It's hard for you, isn't it?" said Emma. "You are," she paused for thought for a moment, trying to articulate what she could sense in Yvette's thoughts without alienating the girl. "You are very kind," she said. "Always thinking of others. And yet you find your mutation very isolating."

Yvette's long fingers tightened on the log, digging in, and she nodded. While her face was hard to read, her thoughts were absolutely clear: She understands. "It is difficult," she said haltingly, this time emotion choking her words more than her language issues. "When you must think to keep someone safe from you. When you cannot do as they do, to think, always, of not hurting..." Her voice trailed away.

"You spend all your time thinking of ways not to hurt people. I had to think of ways to make sure they couldn't hurt me." Emma's voice was soft. "I spent years trying to make the voices in my head stop hurting me. They were like knives and they never stopped. Until I made them stop. Until I learned how to control my mutation."
 

Yvette looked away. Control. The holy grail that always seemed out of her reach and with it the chance of having any kind of physical contact with anyone, all the things a normal teenage girl dreamed of. "I work very hard for the control, but there does not seem to be the change. Mr. Haller is saying I have... made the plateau?"

"Mr Haller is lying," said Emma sharply, and then held up a hand to hold back any outraged response. "Or is telling his version of the truth. My version is better. My version says that you need more help than Haller is giving you. That you need me," she said, and her smile was almost girlish with pleasure. "I really am quite terribly good at what I do, Yvette. Probably because I did it all to myself first. Control is an option for you. If you'll let me help you."

There was a long, silent pause, broken only by the sound of birdsong and the breeze in the treetops. Yvette thought of Kevin and Jay, of Angel and Laurie giggling about boys in the suite, of countless torn clothes and books and other items from moments of carelessness. She thought of the hologram Forge had showed her, of how she might look if she wasn't a mutant, of the almost-forgotten sensation of a soft breeze against her skin or a cat rubbing against her cheek. When she looked up, her eyes were glowing with an intensity that was almost incandescent.

"Yes," she said, voice firm. "If you are wishing to teach me, then I will learn."

"Good," said Emma. "I will need to talk to Charles, organise time around your classes. And your rescue work. Though I can see why Nathan thinks you're ready for the responsibilities he's placing on your shoulders. It won't be easy, Yvette. I won't lie to you; it took me many months to learn some semblance of control and many years of practice to hone it. But it exists. All I ask is that you believe in the possibility." She leaned forward, her hand moving so swiftly that Yvette didn't have time to flinch back as she did so instinctively these days. The fingers that rested on Yvette's cheek were pure diamond. "And remember that you can never, never hurt me."

Yvette trembled slightly and then nodded, lifting her ungloved hand to touch the back of Emma's. The gesture said more than any words ever could.

Comments

[x-jubilee.livejournal.com]

Man, you guys are awesome. I love this log. Yvette's needed some hope for eventual control of her mutation for awhile now. Good to see she's getting it.