xp_logs | A Frost Sister Christmas (Backdated)

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Emma hosts Adrienne at her Berkshires estate for Christmas and after discussing the Hellfire Club and Adrienne's legal situation the two get into a fight while out for a walk.

"I still can't believe you named your house 'Tanglewood'," Adrienne chuckled, sipping at her water as she looked out onto the snowy fields of Emma's Berkshires estate from her spot in a comfy chair in the living room, letting their Christmas Eve dinner settle. "It's just... maybe I have a gutterbrain, but really, Emma? Tangle...wood?" She dissolved into giggles, despite the fact that she hadn't been drinking, still confining herself to only drinking in the mansion where she felt completely in control.

Emma raised an eyebrow at Adrienne's giggles and chose to exaggerate her usual cut-glass tones even further. "It's culture, sister dear. Culture. American literary history and the gilded age. Actually," and the edge of hauteur in Emma's voice vanished, "it's misdirection. The real Tanglewood is down there," Emma waved a hand vaguely over the snowy vista towards Lenox, "and is infinitely more famous than this one. So if anyone comes looking for me, no-one directs them here." Emma sipped at her cognac, not at all repentant about doing that in front of her currently-teetotal sister. "There's been the odd confused Frost Enterprises employee attending Beethoven concerts but the name helps maintain my privacy." She grinned at Adrienne. "I am terribly devious, you know."

Adrienne took a quick swipe of one of the walls with a hand. "Huh, so it is," she grinned when she pulled her hand back. "You are terribly devious! Not that I didn't know that already, I mean," she shrugged, still grinning. "Can we see the real Tanglewood from the grounds? Is it decorated for Christmas?" Adrienne suddenly got to her feet. "Let's go outside and see if we can see it! I bet the grounds and the view looks all magical and shit, what with the snow and it being dusk and Christmas and all that," she chuckled, tugging on Emma's hand.

Emma let Adrienne drag her towards the doors with a resigned humour that would have astonished... probably everyone in the Universe. "Tell me," she said, conversationally as Adrienne wrestled with the locks that held the double doors closed. "Do you think you'll ever get over your addiction to shiny things? Or are you just a hopeless case of eternal adolescence?" Emma quirked a smile at her sister, whose immediate response had been to look back over her shoulder and poke her tongue out.

Adrienne had also flipped Emma off in addition to the tongue poking. "I have an addictive personality; what can I say? Or an adolescent personality," she mused, "I'm not entirely sure how that works." Adrienne managed to throw the doors open and stepped out into the snow, glad she'd worn hiking boots instead of heels out to Emma's estate. "I wish you had a skating rink, and that I knew how to skate," she smiled. "Do you know how to skate?"

"I'm the ice queen," replied Emma, stepping down into the snow. "Of course I can skate. I didn't quite make it to national standard for figure skating, but I was better than average. The same with downhill skiing. It seemed... important at the time." She smiled down at her outfit, as dazzlingly white as the snow that surrounded them. "It wouldn't do to have a White Queen who couldn't take someone out onto a frozen lake to threaten them with icy death if they didn't do what they were told. Falling on your ass reduces your threat level exponentially, I've found."

"I can only imagine," Adrienne laughed. She trotted on ahead to the tree line surrounding the property, hoping to catch a glimpse of the real Tanglewood, and that it would match the image in her mind of the Christmas postcard. The place had to be seen from a certain distance to match the postcard, of course, which was why the estate she'd just come from couldn't fulfill the need she had to see it, even if Emma's place was covered in fairy lights and twinkling coniferous trees. Of course, the further she got from Emma's, the more chance there was of it becoming the fantasy image in her head. "But you never fall on your ass, Em. I got those genes out of the family pool, not you," she chimed in good-naturedly.

“When your ass is as perfect as mine, of course you don’t fall on it,” replied Emma. “I’m sure there’s some kind of law of physics that guarantees its preservation. After all, what else explains the fact that I could suddenly turn into diamond other than the fact that the Universe wanted to preserve my perfection once I joined Xavier’s little team? The number of times I’ve got knocked onto my ass since then, being organic diamond is the only way I haven’t ended up known as the Black And Blue Queen.”

Adrienne laughed. "I was being metaphorical, but I'm glad you're not the Black And Blue Queen. It's funny that the Universe would choose to give you a diamond form to preserve your perfection when you joined Xavier's instead of, y'know, just making things around Xavier's less dangerous."

Emma shrugged, stepping carefully through a particularly deep drift of snow. “The Universe hasn’t been able to stop Xavier’s people using tactics that seem to originate on the Somme, so perhaps it thought it was easier to make me invulnerable. I may disagree quite vigorously with rather a lot that Monsieur LeBeau chooses to do, but he does actually have a grasp of the notion of “ambush” that I find refreshing.” She moved more quickly once she was past the worst of the snow. “Just make sure you don’t agree to any battle plans that put you in the thick of it, Adrienne. Though I’ve found large men with energy absorption powers and/or healing factors make the most useful shields, if you do end up on the pointy end inadvertently.”

"I'll keep that in mind," the brunette smirked. "Come to think of it, I actually haven't been in a battle since I came back to the mansion. That must be some sort of record." She came to the edge of the tree line and gazed down at the property at the bottom of the hill, glowing with Christmas lights. "Rather than be in the middle of battles, I'm actually enjoying this whole amateur PI thing I have going on, doing stakeouts and stealth shit. I'm starting to understand why you fund the Trenchcoats. It's rewarding and it's a lot more fun sneaking around than being in a damn battle."

Emma gazed down at the sparkling lights that spread across the valley below them, enjoying their beauty, but unable to stop herself from attempting to work out how the whole electronics array could have been set up more efficiently and aesthetically, a combination of business and genuine pleasure that she doubted most people would appreciate. “Well,” she said, “amateur PI seems a much more appropriate use of your powers than anything that involves fighting someone who can punch you into the next state.” Emma filed away the electronics array she’d been designing in her head and turned her full attention back to the conversation. “Sneaking around?” Emma raised a sardonic eyebrow. “Considering how much being the centre of attention is encoded into our Frost genes, doesn’t it seem ironic that both of us end up doing work that involves sneaking around? It’s hardly our natural state.”

Adrienne nodded in agreement as she mused over that point. "That's true. Although I would argue that in a way it fulfills our need for self-importance; usefulness, if you will, even though we're not necessarily the centre of attention. Except I'm not sure if anyone else in the family got that desire to be useful gene. Mine only kicked in a few years ago as it is, whereas you had Massachusetts Academy, and then the Trenchcoats. Did you hear I want to help a mutant clothing business get off the ground?" She chose the phrase 'did you hear' to encompass both the possibility that Emma would have heard through word of mouth or that she would have heard it in Adrienne's own head at some point.

“Mutant clothing?” asked Emma. “Is that clothing for mutants or clothing by mutants? Or just employing mutants? And are you allowed to do that yet?”

"It's both- clothing for mutants, by mutants. A lot of working with specialized fabrics for people like Yvette," Adrienne replied with a smile. "And employing mutants, yes. But I'm not employing them, which is why it's allowed I suppose. I have a meeting with the designer in a couple weeks, but for now, I imagine I'd just be a contracted employee myself, hired to create a business plan."

At Emma's question of whether she was allowed to do that, the picture Adrienne had created in her head of the valley below suddenly made her feel foolish, like she'd been duped in some way to believe that there really was such a thing as a picture postcard scene in real life. But it was just a gimmick, it didn't really exist. She turned back towards Emma's place and started walking again. "I really wish we could find some way to get the Black Court to reverse this shit stream they've directed my way so we could get the investigation dropped," she huffed, sounding tired. "My lawyers haven't been able to make any headway with it; the job Shaw's people did planting the anomalies in my books was damn good. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be back at the mansion- especially now that Garrison's stopped destroying things in my presence- and working for X-Factor has been great. Sometimes I think it's the only thing keeping me from going insane with boredom. But to have this investigation still hanging over my head, to not be allowed to move around freely and do what I want, to not be trusted in the business world anymore... it's a fucking drag."

Emma felt the sharp sting of Adrienne’s sudden disillusion against her mind and followed her sister silently back towards the cottage as Adrienne talked her way through what was troubling her. Emma had found that sometimes the easiest way to identify the real problem was to listen to the difference between what someone was thinking and the words that came out of their mouth. Adrienne, she had to admit, rarely fell in that group of people; what Adrienne thought tended to be what she said. With a small smile at herself, Emma said, “I did try and intercept some of what Wyngarde was doing, when you were in hiding. What’s in your books isn’t as – dire, as it could have been. I just wish I’d been able to be a bit more open in my manoeuvres, but there seemed little sense in antagonising the Black Court completely when your safety was compromised.” She tapped one perfectly manicured finger against her lips. “Two choices, I guess. Send in my own lawyers to see what they can do or deal directly with Sebastian. Which,” she added as a warning, “would mean owing a favour to the Black Court. I can keep them from doing anything further to you but an obligation will arise. I am willing to do that for you, but the last time Sebastian called in an obligation, we ended up with Belladonna as Black Queen. Payback is, quite literally, a bitch.”

Managing to muster up a smile for Emma's comment about Belladonna, Adrienne shook her head ruefully. "No favours. No Black Court. I'll take what I've got rather than be obliged to them. And you're right, there was little sense in you antagonizing them. I left so I wouldn't be responsible for you getting hurt; I would have been pretty pissed if your maneuvering had led to you getting hurt anyway. But," she added hopefully, "I wouldn't say no to having your lawyers look things over and see if they can straighten things out for me. Giving me lawyers for Christmas," she said happily, "what a great gift, Sis!" Emma's lawyers were much more expensive than her own; didn't that mean they stood a better chance of actually getting shit done?

Emma shrugged. "Well, it was that or shoes and I'm sure you don't need any more of those after our last shopping expedition." The grin she sent her sister was remarkably sly. "Surely? I mean, you couldn't possibly need more shoes, could you, Adrienne?"

"When the world stops producing them, I'll stop needing them," Adrienne answered with a smirk. "Although now that I'm producing them myself, I don't seem to need to buy other peoples' designs as often anymore." She hoped Emma would like her designs, especially since one of them was wrapped up under Emma's Christmas tree for her.

"Really?" said Emma, smiling. "So I should take back the Christian Louboutin heels I bought you then? And you haven't even unwrapped them..."

Laughing, Adrienne shook her head vehemently. "Oh no, no no no no, that's just fine. I said I don't need to buy any, not that I wouldn't still accept them as gifts!" As they made their way back to the house Adrienne reached out for Emma's hand and squeezed it before quickly letting go. "Your place looks just as pretty as the real Tanglewood. I'm glad I got to hang out here with you. Sure beats hiding out in an apartment in Boston like last year," she chuckled.

"This is my hide-out," replied Emma. "There's very few people in the world who know I own this, let alone who've ever been invited to visit. Sometimes it's nice not having to be Emma Frost, White Queen or Emma Frost, Business Tycoon." She grinned and stopped in her tracks, as Adrienne continued for a few more paces. "Or even Emma Frost, Grown Up," she said, as she reached down and scooped up a handful of snow. Even in this, Emma's timing was immaculate as ever and her snowball caught her sister fair in the face as Adrienne turned back to see why Emma had stopped.

Making sure her mental shields were carefully in place, Adrienne fell to the ground clutching at her face and wailing. "Ow! Owowowowowow! Christ, Emma! I think there was a fucking rock in there! I think you broke my fucking nose! Owwwwwww!"

Emma let a stab of concern radiate out to her sister and rushed to Adrienne's side. "Adrienne," she said in a slightly panicked voice and reached a hand down to her sister on the ground, dropping down on one knee. "Here, let me put something on that," she said and scooping up a wad of snow off the ground, aimed for Adrienne's face again.

Adrienne shrieked and went on the offensive, grabbing snow in both her fists and shoving it down the back of Emma's collar, laughing and sputtering.

"Take that, sister mine!" said Emma and shoveled snow as hard as she could at any opening in Adrienne's coat, while trying to keep Adrienne's flailing arms as far away from her as possible. A thoroughly undignified few minutes followed, that finished in what Emma assumed was the usual way; the sisters lying next to each other, face-up and covered in snow, laughing so hard that Emma wasn't sure whether it was that or the exertion that meant they were panting.

"Did we," said Emma, when she caught enough breath, "ever do that when we were children? I don't seem to remember anything like it."

Shaking her head, Adrienne formed a snowball and tossed it underhand into Emma's lap. "Frost children didn't play outside," she answered with a smirk. "It wasn't seemly. It was a skill we had to learn on our own, later in life. We used to play chess, though," she grinned. "And I remember us putting on Mother's makeup and jewelry to play dress up." It was one of her earliest memories, she supposed she'd been around five years old. "You used to let me colour your cheeks with lipstick and draw mustaches on you with eye liner."

Emma sighed loudly. "The things I do for family," she said, in a sufficiently martyred tone. "Christmas lawyers and eye liner moustaches. And snow in my underwear. Wet, drippy, melting snow in a five-hundred dollar bra. I'm fairly certain that's some kind of sin." She grinned. "Lucky I'm an excellent sinner." She turned over, so she could look at Adrienne. "Shall we go open presents and drink egg-nog and all those things that family do? Possibly after changing our clothes?" Emma pushed herself up on one elbow. "Though I doubt even you can get me to drink enough cognac to persuade me to let you do the lipstick thing again." She raised an eyebrow. "And there's not enough champagne in the world for the eye liner moustache."

"Egg-nog and presents and clothes sounds great. And maybe I'll be so full of freaking Christmas cheer I'll let you give me an eyeliner mustache as payback." Laughing, Adrienne got to her feet and held her hand out to help Emma up, even going so far as to wipe it on her jeans to dry it off first.

Emma clasped Adrienne's hand and stood up, taking the opportunity to wrap her other arm around her sister and hug her closely for a minute. "A Frost family Christmas," she said and let go of the hug. "Who would have guessed that it wouldn't turn out like the world's most dysfunctional reality TV show?"