Adrienne and Jeanne-Marie

[x-borealis.livejournal.com]

A slightly inebriated Adrienne proves to be good company for a drowsy Jeanne-Marie.



Still feeling elated from the events of the day, and slightly inebriated from her meeting with Morgan, Adrienne climbed the stairs to her room at the mansion energetically. It felt good to be coming home. And shit, she really was turning into a sap, wasn't she?

Her smile vanished upon opening the door, however, when she noticed a very pretty brunette sleeping on the couch in the suite. "Morgan?" she asked tentatively, although as soon as she said it Adrienne knew that was impossible, since she'd just left Morgan when she departed Harry's, and the blue woman definitely hadn't been going through the process of picking up a new mimic at the time. Besides, why would Morgan be on her couch?

Shaking her head to try and clear it, Adrienne's addled brain stumbled over something that finally clicked. She recalled the phone ringing, after she and Garrison had finally finished setting the penthouse to rights, when she'd finally fallen into her bed to sleep the sleep of the untroubled, victorious, and extremely drunk- the first time she could remember going to sleep in that particular bed without feeling any fear. The phone had rung, waking her to a splitting hangover headache, and it had been someone from the school, asking her something, and she remembered growling an 'okay fine' before hanging up on them. And she remembered the phone ringing again, and it being Jean-Paul, and she remembered him asking her something about his sister moving into her room, and she remembered saying yes, of course, and then falling back asleep.

Shit.

"Jean-Paul's sister?" she questioned, sitting down in a chair to steady herself as she waited for the woman to stir. She didn't even know the woman's name. She hadn't even known he'd had a sister until two days ago. Hadn't he said she was a 'long lost' sister? What was she doing here? And why was she on the couch instead of in the bedroom?

Even a full day after her trip, Jeanne-Marie was worn and so sleeping deeply once her nerves had allowed her to drift off. She had tried to settle into her undecorated room first, but its barren stillness and the moonlight flooding in from the uncovered window that made everything an effervescent white simply reminded her too much of the institution Walter had left her in years before and it had become impossible. The migration to the couch and the use of the afghan draped along its back had proven to be a suitable solution...at first.

She jerked awake at the unfamiliar voice, visibly startled as she looked at Adrienne. Her eyes were Jean-Paul's, only with a complete lack of recognition. "~Who...?~" she began wearily, looking across to the figure slumped in the chair. For a moment she couldn't remember where she was and just stared, restless and uneasy until the new reality began to settle back into place. Xavier's. Jean-Paul had brought her to this suite, with the assurance that her roommate would be good company. But the name...the name eluded her still. Snow? Rime? You're being absurd now.

She smiled weakly and forced herself to sit up, "...Jean-Paul's friend? A pleasure."

Adrienne extended a hand, struggling to keep the surprise off her face. She'd known that Jean-Paul's sister was his twin, but the similarities in the eyes had caught her off guard. "Adrienne Frost. I'm sorry, I don't think your brother mentioned your name to me."

There was little need to hide her surprise. Jeanne-Marie was still far from a full waking, disoriented enough to miss all details save the most apparent; like an extended hand. She leaned forward to meet it with her own, forcing her form out from beneath the pale blanket she had been hiding under to reveal standard Xavier's grays. While not much to look at, they made apt sleepwear. "Jeanne-Marie. And at least you have an excuse," she admitted genially and with some short-lived embarrassment, "I had simply lost hold of yours. Desolee."

"Pas de quoi," Adrienne replied automatically. "So you've just arrived?" She'd only spoken to Jean-Paul on Friday, and he'd mentioned his sister but nothing about her showing up here. Adrienne wondered if there was personal motive behind her arrival, or whether she'd come to play nursemaid to her brother. "And are you planning on staying? Because of your brother's recent... difficulties?" she inquired unscrupulously.

Difficulties. The term made Jeanne-Marie pause, brushing back her sleep-strewn hair and blinking a few times as if trying to wake up. Only in a place like this could something so horrible be addressed so nonchalantly. That one word held more sway with her than any element of Adrienne's forward questions, which she was only just on the verge of registering. "Yesterday evening," she said at last, "And oui, I would like to be here for him."

"Good," Adrienne answered with a nod. "He's a friend, so I'm happy to see him have help from as many people as possible. So you're staying here until he fully recovers- as much as he ever will, I mean?" She was trying to get some idea of how long she would have a roommate, a little confused about why Jeanne-Marie wasn't just staying with Jean-Paul, or in one of the guest suites. "On my couch?"

The Quebecois gave a small nod in agreement; Jean-Paul deserved all the aid this place could give, and all the aid she could give, as he worked through this ordeal and found his way back to himself. Even if that self would always bear the scars of the experience. She suddenly longed for his company, as if being there in perpetuity and holding his hand could somehow prevent the wounds from settling in. You should have been there. The woman pulled herself up, the grays slumping in loose outline around her slim body, and took a few steps toward the kitchenette. She was waking. Tea would not be unwarranted, would it?

"Almost certainly longer," Jeanne-Marie corrected finally, searching for the necessary items at speed and making her aims clear as she produced a small kettle, "Perhaps permanently. It was a largely unplanned venture and nothing has been decided, but...it has been good to see him." She smiled dryly upon the couch inquiry, "And only for tonight. My apologies if I startled you."

Adrienne waved the apology off with a smile, following Jeanne-Marie into the kitchen. "Not at all. I was just a little confused. This is my return to the place after close to three weeks away, so my brain went to 'squatter?' before I remembered being contacted by the school and Jean-Paul this morning. Before I was fully awake, apparently." Noticing the other woman's hunt for the kettle, she pulled a box of teabags out of a cupboard. "So why the couch?" she asked curiously. "The bedroom just a little too sparse to feel like yours yet?"

Looking over to see Adrienne armed with the teabags, Jeanne-Marie's small smile took on a more authentic air. She brought the kettle to the sink and began to fill it, saying with just the lightest jest, "Is Madame Frost not a morning person? I will try to keep it in mind." Her expression evened at a gradual pace, hurried only slightly by the continued questions about her sleeping arrangements, and she tapped one anxious finger along the side of the kettle as the water inside continued to rise. "Outright barren. And I do prefer some cover to the windows. If I wake because of sunlight in my eyes, I am afraid I will not be much of a morning person either."

"I usually have no objections to mornings, other than the fact that they come so damn early all the time," Adrienne retorted. "Last night was a little... unusual. I wasn't able to get much sleep. And not because of sex, which would have been a tolerable reason for not sleeping," she smirked. "Did you need some help unpacking your things in the room, making it less barren?" she offered. "I happen to know a Canadian who gains the power of super strength if he drinks maple syrup. He also has the ability to call woodland animals into domestic service. He's great at heavy lifting."

Jeanne-Marie shut off the water and turned to bring the kettle to the stove, her expression as she moved past Adrienne somewhere between amusement, nostalgia and soft embarrassment at such an assertion. For all her wilder persona's flirtatious behaviors and carnal pursuits, she had rarely gone as far as her boasting might have suggested. And only one of those individuals had been anything but her one side attempting to both torture and persuade the other. In truth, men were still largely foreign territory, infused with a sort of stigma that would have pleased the Mother Superior to no end. "One of few tolerable reasons, I suppose," she relented not quite enthusiastically, "But I hope this unusual night was not too taxing."

She switched on the stove before looking back at her roommate again and shaking her head, "It is a kind offer, but I have nothing to unpack."

Adrienne nodded in acquiescence of Jeanne-Marie's 'one of few tolerable reasons' line. "That's true. Going to the all-night stoner bakery is another tolerable re-what? Nothing to unpack?" Traveling around with nothing was a concept completely alien to the former model. "You have to have something. Clothes, at least. Don't worry about it being too intimate for me to meddle-I mean help, with," she grinned playfully. "I run a modeling agency, and also own a clothing label, so I've seen everything. The most freaky shit you could imagine."

"I have nothing," Jeanne-Marie said again, her tone simple and honest and without exaggeration. It certainly explained her current garments. "'Freaky' or otherwise. I am not trying to dissuade your help, truly, but like I said...it was an unplanned trip."

"But... you're going to send for your stuff now that you're 'perhaps' staying permanently?" Adrienne was still not following how one could live without stuff.

Jeanne-Marie laughed softly despite herself under this adamant scrutiny and shook her head, "I do not believe it would be worth the cost of shipping. There would be little to send, but a considerable distance to send it." She shifted her stance and leaned back against the counter. It was not so difficult to pick up and start over. She had done it more than once. "But it is nothing to concern yourself with."

"Oh, yes it is," the psychometrist insisted. "No roommate of mine is going to walk around with nothing but Xavier sweats!" While the kettle was warming, Adrienne strode towards her bedroom, beckoning Jeanne-Marie to follow her. "I've got a suitcase of things ready to go to the local shelter- take the lot, if there's anything that you like. I never seemed to get over my old habit of only wearing things once, even when I learned to control my powers," she mumbled. "Except now I give them away instead of incinerating them."

"I was planning on picking up some thi-" Jeanne-Marie began to protest, but Adrienne was already walking out of the kitchen and toward her bedroom. Dumbfounded, she followed, uncertain whether the woman's insistence was rooted in generosity or pride or both and feeling increasingly overwhelmed by the sheer extravagance of the explanation. She wondered what variety of power might promote such a habit. "...Are you certain? That is a very generous offer."

Adrienne made a face. "Sweetie, I own a label. And a modeling agency, where the girls always get to keep their clothes, and anything they don't want goes into a room filled with clothes I can't always even give away. It's not a generous offer, it's you saving me some space. You're doing me the favour. I'll have to take you to the office and let you clear out some of the racks this week, if you'd be interested." Please be interested. Please don't be a Morgan, she was thinking to herself.

"What a philanthropic approach," Jeanne-Marie said lightly, "And people say big business does not care." She considered the offer silently for a moment while Adrienne directed her to the aforementioned suitcase, filled almost beyond its ability to close. Her roommate seemed insistent and it would be rude to reject the offer simply based on how innately peculiar it seemed...and this way she would not have to turn to her brother or to the Professor for funding she simply did not have. Her fingers touched the top garment with thoughtful care and she turned her pale eyes back to Adrienne, "...I would be. Merci."

"No one should be forced to endure Xavier school sweats indefinitely," Adrienne said sagely. "You start going through that, and I'll make the tea. Tell me, how do you feel about baseball?"

It would not have been indefinitely, but there seemed no necessity to point this out to Adrienne, who seemed to be enjoying her function as clothing guru. Instead, Jeanne-Marie just gave a small nod of thanks and began to investigate the top articles until the other woman's voice drew her now bewildered gaze back up again. "Pathetically ignorant," she admitted after a bemused pause, a brief laughter dotting the edges of her words, "I went to see Les Capitales in Quebec City once, but that was ages ago. And they lost anyway, as I recall. Why?"

Adrienne would not be disappointed on the issue. "Well, your education can begin another day. I've been known to be quite a fan. And I'd actually you rather be pathetically ignorant than another Jays fan, because now I can turn you over to my side," she added happily, dancing off to get the tea.

Jeanne-Marie couldn't help but smile as she watched the woman depart with notable ease and energy in her step. She had forgotten the value of simple, unburdened conversation and right now fashion and baseball over tea was sounding just about perfect.