Morgan and Adrienne - Backdated to Tuesday

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Morgan and Adrienne discuss their upcoming date and Morgan's new employment with X-Force. A catfight ensues.

Garrison's return had put Adrienne in a much better mood than she'd been in the past few days, and she felt like celebrating something. She'd invited Morgan over to play the Nazi video game that had to go back to the video store in the morning, already overdue. She set out beer for Morgan and diet Coke for herself, along with chips and popcorn and a fruit tray since summer and swimsuit season were coming. Hearing approaching footsteps, Adrienne went to the door to whip it open before Morgan could knock and enter on her own. "Hi!"

Morgan jumped a little, eyebrows mirroring the action, as the door had been swung open abruptly and out popped an Adrienne head. "Hey, cupcake. You got a sugar high going on or summat?" She teasingly laid the back of her fingers against Adrienne's cheek, then her forehead to check if she was sick. An arm slid around her friend's waist easily and Morgan spun them in a wide arch further into the suite. "You're in an unreasonably good mood. Who gave you uppers?"

"I'm not on uppers," Adrienne responded, making a face. "I'm just glad you're back and Garrison's back and oh Christ I sound like a Girl Scout. Work and money are causing me a lot of headaches right now and I'm still acting like a Girl Scout. Damnit. Let's shoot Nazis," she pleaded, gesturing to the couch.

Morgan's eyebrows were shooting upward again as Adrienne spoke. "Yeah. We're all alive. Should we have a commemorative orgy or something so you can work out all your Girl Scout energy? Maybe you should just make us both cookies." Though as she spoke Morgan headed for the couch, hopping over the back of it and landing on the cushion with a bounce.

With a snort, Adrienne joined Morgan on the couch. "I am an excellent baker, I'll have you know. I had a whole 'be domestic housewife to please husband' phase, took cooking classes, even. Tell me about seeing a man about a job? Is this the job offer you mentioned Remy giving you right after Garrison came back?"

Morgan nodded. "Aye. Offered me a job at Snow Valley. I took off to the ever so lovely Democratic Republic of Congo where the boys are right now to go see them because I couldn't just walk out on them without talking to them about it. I wanted their opinions anyway. So I went to try to make an appointment to see LeBeau but he was around anyway so I took him up on his offer, he gave me the run down, the job is mine, and I have to move out of the mansion."

Adrienne paused with her hand above the fruit platter and stared at Morgan, digesting the information. "You're going to be a Trenchcoat?" she asked, no inflection of anything like fear or disdain or excitement in her voice- just a question to answer something that had taken her off guard.

"Aye." Morgan had stopped when Adrienne had frozen at the revelation. She was hovering there, with a handful of popcorn halfway between the bowl and her mouth. She wasn't sure what Adrienne's reaction was going to be and Morgan realized that reaction really mattered to her. Just as much as Eamon's reaction had mattered to her.

A grin spread across Adrienne's face. "Fighting alongside my sister. Now that is interesting. How would you feel about my needling you for information about her? You could be my spy on the inside. Oh, I am liking this," she smiled, adding a diabolical cackle. "Seriously, though," she added, sobering a little though the smile couldn't be wiped off her face, "danger aside, and moving aside, I'm glad you're on their team. Having you looking out for Amanda and Marie-Ange and Mark and the rest of them is a very good thing in my book." She flopped back on the couch, relaxing, wondering why Morgan hadn't asked her how she knew about the Trenchcoats in the first place.

Morgan relaxed visibly and tossed a few kernels of popcorn into her mouth. "I don't know, love, it depends on what information you want. Besides, what do you need me for? You can just saunter in without your spray on and touch things if you want information." Morgan didn't really wonder why or how Adrienne knew about anything the crew over at Snow Valley did. She had a sister affiliated with them and most of the people in the mansion had seemed to know what they got up to. "I like the danger," Morgan told her with a shrug. "I'm a junkie, what can I say?"

"I can't exactly walk in and start touching things, darling," Adrienne replied with a smirk. "After all, it's not very subtle, is it? And I don't exactly have a viable reason to visit. They all know who I am and that if I wanted information I would just ask one of them right out with no need to go to the office." She booted up the Nazi video game and handed Morgan a controller. "I prefer my danger in video game form." Which was why Amanda's warning about the Hellfire Club was causing her to second-guess proving herself an asset to the White Court. "Where should I get reservations for our date?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll consider being your spy. Only when it doesn't relate to work details. Those are kept in confidence for a reason." Morgan popped a few more kernels of popcorn into her mouth while she reached out with her free hand for the controller. "Video game danger, pffft." Morgan rolled her eyes dramatically. "With how much Kane drags your ass about? I think you've got some adrenaline junkie in you and you don't want to admit it." Leaning to the side, she nudged her friend's shoulder with her own while wearing a teasing grin. "The date's your prize, we can go wherever. I promise Daniel cleans up quite well, has impeccable manners and enough etiquette to make socialites cream their panties."

"I truly hope Daniel has better vocabulary than Morgan," Adrienne rolled her eyes. "Confidential work details respected," she agreed with a nod. "Unless those work details include a contract on my life, which I wouldn't put past older sis, in which case I expect full warning. I don't mind the contract so much, I just really don't want you being the one to shoot me." Hopefully if things between herself and Emma ever deteriorated to killing, Emma would at least do it herself. Adrienne might even consider the same, since she'd learned her lesson about hiring other people. She grabbed a handful of fruit, navigating the game's setup screens with one hand. "I confess, you've found my darkest secret- I'm an adrenaline junkie. I get wet at the thought of jumping out of planes or better yet, swimming into New York City in October." She wasn't about to admit that she put herself in danger to try and help people. That would never do.

Morgan waved a hand in a dismissive gesture as if trying to drive away a fly. "Yeah, yeah. Daniel's mouth isn't half as dirty as mine. He's all girlie with the 'mi dulce' and the 'querida' and all that. Every little girl's fantasy of a Latin lover. Worked like a charm on Jean-Paul. I guess Daniel can manage to cut down the PDA instances with you if you want." There was something about picturing Adrienne shoved up against a wall with hands moving everywhere and mouths in a bruising kiss that only worked if it was away from the public eye in Morgan's head. Who knew, maybe her cupcake would surprise her.

"Right, contract on life equals full disclosure." Morgan gave a single, firm nod of acknowledgment and acceptance. "Though, really, I'd be the nicest about it. Right between the eyes, just above the bridge of your nose, over before you knew it began. Sure as hell beats bleeding to death." She shuddered a little. Morgan had seen plenty of people bleed to death from gun wounds. The sight wasn't as bad as the smell of all that blood or the sound of their screaming though.

"No," Adrienne corrected, "contract on life doesn't equal full disclosure, it equals you not killing me at all, nice or not. Besides, I'd pay you more to bodyguard me than Emma would pay you to kill me," she said sweetly, nudging Morgan the way Morgan had nudged her earlier. She thought about what the blue woman had said about Daniel as she started the game, figuring Morgan could figure out how to play without being told what to do. "I appreciate the offer to cut down on the PDA for my sake," she replied quietly, honestly appreciative that Morgan would do that for her, since she knew Daniel was quite tactile, "but that won't be necessary."

"Shouldn't you want both? Full disclosure and not killing you? Otherwise I could just tell someone else how to kill you. Guess I could make some nice change in the bodyguard industry. I'm so damn cute in a suit with my gun tucked away." Morgan smiled and winked at Adrienne. Once the game was up past the set up screens Morgan started to experiment with the buttons, figuring out what did what and trying to figure out if there were any nifty combinations that were useful. Adrienne's comment about not having to turn down the PDA caused Morgan to pause and turn to look at the woman. "So I'm allowed to drag you off to dark corners, pin you against the wall and kiss you until your mouth is numb? Or, rather, Daniel is?" The surprise was obvious in her voice and the raised eyebrow punctuated her shock at the comment.

Adrienne bit her lip. "Well, I'm not giving you carte blanche to keep doing it if I'm not in the mood," she stipulated. "I'm not going to be forced into anything, by anyone. But the entire purpose of me exploiting you for the evening is so that I can be seen on a date with a very attractive and sweet man, doing things I haven't done in public in years, mainly acting like I'm with someone I want to sleep with. I've been on dates with associates and clients for the purpose of publicity before, and I can act the part but I'm sick of acting. I'd rather be with someone I trust, someone whose company I actually enjoy. I know you, I know you don't have sex outside of a relationship so what's the harm in kissing?"


The look Adrienne received after her first comment was one that asked if she knew who she was dealing with. "Why would I bother if you weren't in the mood? Remember who you're talking to here, cupcake. I'm not about to force you into anything or push you further than you want to be pushed. Some of us don't get off on the way an unwilling woman screams when you hold her down and I'm one of those people, alright?" Morgan was slightly offended that Adrienne even felt the need to make that stipulation known, but she could understand why she had. "You're right, though. About the kissing and the lack of harm. Make it passionate enough for them to all believe the night was spent in a sweaty tangle of limbs after we depart and suddenly you're sexual and sexy and not some old has been hag. Not that they think you're a has been. I know fuck all about fashion so, yeah. Anyway, woo kissing."

Adrienne prided herself on not flinching at Morgan's comment about an unwilling woman screaming. She was used to Morgan's crude way of speaking by now. Sensing that she was offended, Adrienne nudged Morgan's shoulder with hers again but this time kept leaning on the blue woman, head on her shoulder in a friendly gesture. "Alright," she responded. "I know who I'm talking to. I'm sorry I insulted you. Look, I'm not even saying there has to be kissing, if you don't want to," she added, "it's not as if we need to have a game plan here or anything, certain number of kisses at certain times in order to sell it to the public. We'll just see what happens. Wait- did you just call me a has-been hag?" she asked, straightening up to glare Morgan down.


"Well," Morgan drew the word out for several beats, "you are getting awfully old for fashion standards, aren't you?" She shot a playful grin over to the glaring woman. "It's possible that some elitist types in the industry might look unfavorably on your age. That's all I'm saying. I mean, I wouldn't know what constitutes an 'is' never mind a 'has been.'" Oh yeah, Morgan was totally in trouble now.

"Bitch!" Adrienne screeched in her best drama queen voice. "Are you trying to invoke a catfight? I'm not a model, I run the goddamned company! I make the fashion standards!" Theatrically, she yanked the popcorn bowl off the coffee table and upended it over Morgan's head.


Morgan sat there casually and picked popcorn out from between her cleavage and off her lap, munching on it happily. "I've never been in a catfight. Lemme see if I get this right." She stood up and plucked the Diet Coke up off the table. She made a motion as if to pour it over Adrienne's head. "Too soon? Right, too soon. Next round." She nodded to herself, put it down and picked up the bowl of chips she then upended over Adrienne's head with a high-pitched, "Bitch!" Somehow Morgan thought she was doing this wrong. Shouldn't there be mention of a baby daddy in here somewhere?

Laughter replaced the horror in Adrienne's eyes after watching the Coke nearly go over her head. She picked chips up off the couch and shook her head, muttering. "Terry's going to kill me." Holding up her hands for truce, she ate some of the floor chips. "I haven't been in a catfight since I was seventeen; I think we need to ask the students how to do it properly these days. And speaking of roommates, when do you get free of yours and move into the city? Or do you have a roommate there?"


"Uh.." Morgan shrugged and plopped back down onto the couch. The crunch of chips being shattered under her weight didn't faze her in the least. She went back to picking bits of popcorn off the couch and eating them. "I don't actually know. I need to talk to Sparks about it but she's gone off to Spain with Angelo now that I'm back. She said she'd be back in a few days so I figure I'll just poke blondie when she's back. According to LeBeau she's the lass to see about a key and a place in the Brownstone, which I guess makes your sister my landlord."

"Well, hopefully she's not too strict about guests," Adrienne smiled. "Assuming you even want guests, I mean," she added with a shrug. It was one thing to have company over when you lived in the same mansion as them, but quite another to actually invite people over to your place when you didn't encounter them every day, Adrienne recognized. Moving away from the mansion might lead to an 'out of sight, out of mind' philosophy for Morgan. Not that that bothered Adrienne. It wasn't like she was attached to the woman or anything.


"I don't generally let my landlord dictate who I can and cannot have over when I pay rent. It sort of removes any right to have a say in what happens there beyond lease stipulations." Not that Morgan had ever had more than a month-to-month lease anywhere with the exception of the six month lease she'd once had on a place in Croatia during some down time. This would be the first time in her life her name had been on anything for any prolonged period of time. And, really, the first time her name would be on anything period. Vanessa Carlysle was a clean record, something Remy needed, so she would be put on the books at Snow Valley, not Morgan Lennox or any other alias she may use.

Adrienne rolled her eyes. "Always on the defensive," she chided gently, knocking herself into Morgan's shoulder again playfully. "I was trying to be subtle in asking if I could still visit you." It seemed as if Morgan was saying yes, and normally the innuendo would suffice for Adrienne but this time she wanted an outright answer.


"Nope. Not at all. Can't get rid of you quick enough. Never want to see you again." Her comments came in pseudo-flat delivery with a hint of playfulness corrupting her otherwise pristine image of wanting nothing to do with Adrienne. She grinned and nudged Adrienne's shoulder back. "Of course you're allowed to visit me. Why would I ban you now?"

"Because I'm going to beat your ass at this Nazi-killing game?" Adrienne suggested, eyebrow raised suggestively.


Morgan gave her a sarcastic and unimpressed look. "Like you could ever manage that. Clearly you're hallucinating again."