Rogue and Adrienne - Belated Christmas Present on New Year's Eve

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Adrienne returns from France with gifts for Rogue, unintentionally giving her what may be the greatest gift of all.

Humming the Pink Panther theme to herself, Adrienne used her powers on the keypad to Rogue's suite and let herself in without knocking, grinning when she found Rogue upside-down on the bed trying to paint her toenails. "Boo!" she called out loudly, making a 'ta-da' gesture with her arms, one of which carried a suitcase-sized paper bag with twine handles. She'd just gotten home from her France trip and Rogue's was her first stop after she'd dumped her luggage and had a quickie with Garrison in the shower to freshen up.

Rogue shrieked and dropped the bottle of nail polish on her shirt, splattering red all over the place. "Damnit girl," she cursed, "ya don't do that to a person! I was doin' good too!" She waggled her toes at Adrienne.

Her much loved bedsheets, the ones she'd purchased with Julian, were now covered in a strange red pattern. Rogue would just have to fix them later on. She had fabric paint.

She narrowed her eyes and pointed a finger at her best friend. "Think y'all can jus' waltz in, from France all ladidah? I had to drink with other people!" A smile suddenly broke out on her face. "But I got Logan to let me sleep in his bed so it's all good. You're forgiven actually. What'd ya get me?"

"Ruh roh," Adrienne muttered with wide eyes at the the nail polish. "Well, I didn't get you new bedding. Sorry. But Kane's bedding is clean so I think what we have to do is take his off his bed and not tell him where it is." She pulled a corner of Rogue's sheets off the bed and sat down gingerly so she could start pulling things out of her bag. "The customary tourist beret and baguette," she announced, pulling up more of the sheet to place the items down on the polish-free bed. "And an Eiffel Tower snow globe. Because they won't let you leave the country without one. Two bottles of wine from the vineyard attached to Tandy's castle. Annnd, this." She pulled a jewelry box out of the bag and held it out for Rogue, hoping she'd like the Chanel bracelet Adrienne had picked out for her.

Rogue watched with wide eyed appreciation as Adri's bag slowly emptied. "Holy crap!," she exclaimed, taking the box from her friend. Carefully, she opened it and her eyes got even wider. "Oh my gawd!". She pulled out the bracelet, marvelling at it. "Did ya talk to Logan or something?"

Getting up, she walked to her dressing table and brought over a pair of earrings and a necklace for Adrienne to look at. "Never in my life have I gotten jewelry, and I'm jus' rakin' it in this year. I'd give you a hug but I got no gloves on. Fake society kiss?".

Chuckling, Adrienne did the fake society kiss melodramatically. "Maybe you're just putting off a vibe of being all mature and classy now that you're back at the mansion," she suggested, smirking at Rogue. She dusted off her hands now that the bag was empty and continued stripping Rogue's bed. "Although, if you're still wearing gloves you can't be that classy," she joked. "Where's your hand coating solution?"

Rogue looked at her blankly. "Uh....I believe it's called 'gloves'...but that's a sure fancy way of sayin' it. Mind if I steal it? "

Confused, Adrienne pulled her canister of hand coating solution out of her purse and tossed it to Rogue. "Not at all.You out of your own? I'd give you the rest of my stash, but with my powers being fucked up again I'm back to needing it. Forge says he shipped more last week, though, so you can have that can."

And now Rogue was even more confused. "What the heck is this? I was talking about stealing the words, not a bottle of hair spray."

"What? What do you mean what the heck is it?" Adrienne looked at her like she had two heads. "It's your stuff. The stuff Forge designed for you. The coating solution. What, do you suddenly have amnesia or something?"

Rogue blinked a few times. "Wait -- you mean the stuff Forge said he could theoretically make but never did before I left for my never ending trip to Canada?" Her eyes widened. "Is this what I'm holding?!"

"Uhhhh..." Well this was kind of awkward. "Surprise?" Adrienne offered, doing another ta-da motion with her hands, this time in the direction of the canister.

Rogue was literally speechless. She had nothing to say. Staring at the bottle all she could do is gape. And then she threw it on the bed. "Do you realize what you jus' gave me? DO YOU?"

Adrienne stared at the bottle for a few moments, frowning. "Well... I'm tempted to say it's the means to have actual sex for the first time since your powers manifested, but that may just be because I have a dirty mind." Had Forge really never contacted Rogue to tell her he'd made the coating solution? Wow. That guy was a little bit of a dick sometimes.

She shook her head, tears springing to her eyes. "That's crack. You handed me Rogue crack. And I don't know what to do now and I don't know how that changes anything but it does. Do you want me to be an addict? Is that it?"

"Whoa." Adrienne backed away when she saw the tears. If there was going to be crying, she had one foot out the door. Adrienne was shit at dealing with crying. "Uhh. Well, if you become an addict, I can be your sponsor? I've got six... no, seventeen years of sobriety under my belt now. I know my shit."

She continued staring at the bottle, trying her best to calm down. "I have a non-date with Logan tonight."

"A non-date?" Adrienne frowned, still confused. "What the hell is a non-date? That sounds like something Tandy would say. Are you trying to hose the media, too?"

Rogue shook her head as she reached up and wiped the tears off her face. "It means we're doin' date things but we're not on a date. He got me those jewels, so I told him we'd better be goin' somewhere nice so I can show them off and he said we are and I bought an amazing outfit because I wanted to be smokin' and now all I can think is that I can kiss him at midnight and I shouldn't want to kiss him but on my top list of people to touch if I could ever touch, he's number one and of my top list of people to kiss, he's definitely number one and oh gawd, I'm gonna puke." this was all said in one breath, and left Rogue almost gasping for air.

"Keep talking like that and I'm gonna puke," Adrienne muttered uncomfortably. "You like Logan?" She tried to keep an open mind but she just couldn't see the appeal. "You want to kiss Logan? You want to get touched by Logan?" Her voice was becoming increasingly shrill. "You went and bought an outfit without me?! Swan, how could you do this to me?!"

"You were in fucking FRANCE," she screamed back. "And I DIDN'T want to touch him until I realized I could and now I don't know what to think and my brain is weird and I don't know why we are YELLING at each other when we should be happy to be reunited because you went to FRANCE without your WIFE, you she-bitch!"

"What?! We're not yelling at each other, you're yelling!" Adrienne responded emphatically. "You're freaking out about this damn coating solution! You're crying and yelling and you're hysterical and saying France a lot and I think I might have to slap you! Do you want me to slap you?"

"Spray your hand first, then you could," she said back, still yelling loudly. She flopped down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. ‎"I don't know what I'm sayin'."

"Actually, people are the only things I can touch without..." Adrienne murmured distractedly, trailing off as she realized this wasn't really the point. She sat back down next to Rogue and looked at her friend with growing concern. "You really had no clue this stuff existed?"

She shook her head against the bedspread. "Nope. He said he didn't think it could be done." Rogue turned her head towards the older woman and gave a smirk. "I asked him when I was datin' Kane actually.". She sighed and wiped her face again. "I'm ridiculous."
‎
"What's ridiculous is he told you he didn't think it could be done." Adrienne huffed out an annoyed breath. "So... the bracelet kinda looks like garbage compared to this present, I guess?" she inquired with a smirk, gesturing to the canister.

"I can't process this. I have less than four hours before I gotta meet Logan in the garage." She rolled over and propped herself up on ‎her elbows."Think he'd kill me if I kissed him?"

"Umm... yeah. Maybe. I wouldn't put it past him?" It was still odd for Adrienne to think of anyone wanting to kiss Logan. But she was extremely happy for Rogue, if that was what she wanted. "Probably not if you were holding a beer?"

Rogue gave a little snort. "Good point." Another deep breath. She'd calmed down. Somewhat. Looking at it, she asked Adrienne how it worked. "I need more details on this. What do you know?"

"I have a pamphlet somewhere," Adrienne muttered, trying to recall where it might have gotten to over the years. She'd likely had Inez scan it and file it on her computer somewhere, as she did with all her important paperwork, so maybe Sue could locate it for her. "I'll have my assistant get you a copy," she told Rogue with a shrug. "But I can tell you the important bits. It's pretty much hairspray. Use it the same way. Easy peasy. And reapply vigourously, cuz it sweats off over time. You can wash it off in soap and water, or with wet-naps. Start buying your wet-naps in bulk," she suggested good-naturedly."Oh." Something had just occurred to her. "Sweat-soluble. So... maybe not the means to have actual sex. But... y'know. I'm sure you can get creative. This stuff can probably help you at least, right?"

Rogue nodded, her eyes still wide open. She had no idea why she would take it off once on, so the wet naps was a moot point.‎ "Yeah, it can," she repeated. She leaned down on her hands and rubbed her eyes vigourously.

"Thank you. You have no idea what this means to me. Course, you know what has to happen now, right?"

"Uhh... we have to go to the West Coast and kick Forge's ass?"
‎
Rogue waved a hand in the air. "Later. But right now, I have to step up my A game! C'mon wife, ya gotta help me get ready! My first real adult kiss without scarves depends on this!"‎

Adrienne rose from the bed again, grinning. "Why do I get the feeling like I'm letting a genie out of a bottle to wreak havoc on the world?" she mumbled, happy for her friend. "Alright, but now we really need to change your sheets. Let's go break into Agent Lana's suite."

"Better yet, we'll leave him these." She grabbed the sheets in her arms. "I think he needs some modern art in his life."‎

"But I sleep in his suite!" Adrienne protested. "I don't think I like this plan."

"Sacrifices is what friendship is all about."