Rogue and Adrienne - Job Offer

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

In which Adrienne offers Rogue a job and Rogue, not knowing better, accepts

With a bag from Atlantis Fish and Chips in one hand and a six-pack of beer in the other, Adrienne paused outside Rogue's door as she pondered how she was going to knock. Eventually she just shrugged and simultaneously kicked the door several times and yelled "Swan! Time for our business meeting! I have beer! Lemme in!"

Rogue glanced up from her laptop when she heard the noise. Heading to the door, she wondered why Adrienne didn't just open the door herself. "Oh! Food! And beer! Ya should've said food first, that would've gotten me offa mah ass sooner!" Opening the door, she motioned the older woman in.

"What'd you get? Deep fried goodness? Yum!"

"Fish and chips," Adrienne answered with a smile, handing the bag to Rogue. "You probably don't remember, but the Moores over at Atlantis make the best fish and chips in New York State." She sat down on Rogue's couch, opening her shoulder bag and pulling out her laptop and various documents. "It's even in newspaper. Can't get more authentic than that. I thought you could use a break from McDonalds."

Rogue eagerly took the package,and sat down on the floor, cross legged. She wasn't going to risk breaking another chair. "Ah appreciate this, so much.". She unfolded her food and took a deep breath in. "Ya. This sure don't compare with McDonald's." She then eyed the beer warily. "Do Ah like beer?"

"Uhh, yeah. You like beer. That's why I brought beer," Adrienne informed her, giving Rogue a strange look. She cracked open a beer for herself and took a sip. "You once told me you... absorbed Logan when you were a teenager. Isn't Logan in your head? Isn't that why you like beer?"

Rogue had refused to explore her brain since waking up. Her mind had always been like a cave system -- different branches would lead to different shadows. Obviously, she'd sorted through them a long time ago, as none were floating aimlessly in her head.

That was one thing she had definitely noticed within a few hours of waking up: the relative silence in her mind. And now that Adri had pointed that out, she tried to search for Logan's mental signature. It took a few moments, and she had to admit the taste of beer helped.

"That's right," she finally said. "An' Ah jus' found him. Guess Ah must reabsorb him a lot durin' practices or somethin' 'cause it's pretty damn strong.". She chewed on a fry thoughtfully. "Ah ain't never absorbed you or Kane."

"Nope. I've offered to let you... absorb me," Adrienne answered with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows, "but you've never been interested. And I don't know how I'd feel if you... absorbed Kane, to be honest with you." She made grabby hands at the food since Rogue had taken the bag and was now hogging it.

Rogue took one more fry before handing the bag to Adrienne. "Ah jus' think it's strange. If we were in a relationship together, an' yet Ah ain't got him in mah head. We must not have gotten real....close Or we were jus' super careful. ". Rogue's eyes widened. "Oh shit, Ah shouldn't have said that! Ah'm sorry. That was inappropriate."

Adrienne laughed, taking the bag and separating out the two orders of food. "Ah, but you forget. I know more about your relationship with my boyfriend than you do right now. You never had sex with Kane." Taking a handful of fries out of the bag that she'd left Rogue's portion in, she handed it back to her friend. "Okay. Business. Let's get down to it, huh? Do you know what my company does?"

No sex? Well, that wasn't surprising.

To Adrienne's question, she tried hard to come up with an answer before admitting defeat. "Not a fucking clue," Rogue responded around a mouthful of fries. She swallowed and twisted her face in thought. "Ya make a lotta money, an' it keeps ya busy. Ah think it has to do with clothes? Maybe?"

Taking another sip of her beer, Adrienne snorted a little. "It does have to do with clothes. Give the lady a gold star. It started as a modelling agency. Finding jobs for models," she clarified, worried nineteen year-old Rogue wouldn't be familiar with what that was. "Then it branched out into designing clothes. Activewear, mainly. Some bespoke. After that, it branched into PR. Making other companies look good. And then we moved on to acting as agents for musicians and athletes." She spoke about the company in rather a clinical fashion, feeling guilty about being proud of it.

"How the hell are we friends?," Rogue asked, astonished. "Ah ain't nowhere near as fancy as you are! That's amazin'! Ah think Ah'd rather have ya as a sugah mama than a wife."

Adrienne shrugged. "It's hard to feel amazing about it right now, honestly," she admitted, squirming uncomfortably. "I mean, I know it's just just a variation on what I had before. I used to have a modelling agency that operated worldwide, and it branched out to fashion design. Where it is now isn't that different from what it used to be. I might have had this- what I have now- if I hadn't taken some other turns, like becoming a teacher, or getting fucked five ways from Sunday by the Hellfire Club. But... still. In a way, it doesn't feel like I earned it."

Rogue raised an eyebrow, unimpressed look on her face. "Now that's jus' bullshit, an' you know it. Other you is you too and clearly, she couldn't have done it if you couldn't have done it. So own it,sugah. Jus' be proud of your company and stop dwellin' on the hows. It's yours now." Rogue picked up her beer can, and with the same hand, pointed a finger at herself. "Now take me for instance: Ah woke up in this world with nothin' so clearly other me was lazy. This seems to be a repeatin' theme in mah life. Ah don't even know how Ah afforded anythin' before...other than the fact that Ah apparently have rich friends. Ah have always depended on the kindness o' strangers."

Smirking at the 'Streetcar' reference, Adrienne took a fork and stabbed at her fish, chewing a mouthful thoughtfully. "You don't have nothing. You're... you were," she corrected, since she was pretty sure the nineteen year-old version of Rogue couldn't work in an official capacity, "an art therapist. You had a studio, office kinda set-up in the boathouse. You're good at that. Figuring out how people can deal with all the shit they're going through. Like how you just tried to Therapy me." And it had pretty much worked, too, since Adrienne had to cede Rogue's arguments about being proud of her company.

"And I don't think you were... detrimentally lazy or anything," she added with a shrug, taking a swig of her beer. "I think a lot of us here just feel like we have a lot to prove, so the bar's set kind of high. But you went out and did stuff. You weren't the kind of lazy where you'd bail on plans with someone because you couldn't be bothered to get out of bed or something like that. Believe me. If you were that lazy, there's no way I'd offer to hire you."

Rogue had to laugh. "Me? A therapist? Now that's jus' rich. Ah never would've guessed that." She picked up her own fork and started to neatly cut up her fish. "But Ah am grateful for the job offer. Don't rightly know what Ah can provide for ya, but whatever it is, Ah'm yours."

"Well," Adrienne began, in businesswoman mode now, "if it suits you, I'd like you to act as my personal assistant." She wrote something down on a business card. "My last PA- that I remember, that is- was Sue Storm. Obviously, she's no longer available. I apparently have a PA here, but... this is probably going to sound stupid," she added, making a face, "but I don't know her. And I don't know if I really want to deal with someone unfamiliar right now. Particularly when my mutation's a secret again, you know? I'd rather have someone I know I can trust."

Rogue gave a sad pout. "That poor girl. Thinks she has a real good job an' then her boss has a breakdown and fires her randomly."

She was starting to understand more and more why she was a therapist. "Ah'm happy to help. Ah haven't really talked ta anyone since wakin' up. A li'l on mah journal, but Ah've been avoidin' people. This'll be good for me.". Rogue gave her a wary look. "Ya sure ya want swiss cheese brain ta do this?"

Adrienne waved a dismissive hand at Rogue's sympathy for the ill-fated PA. "Don't worry about her. I'll give her a promotion. Make her an admin in one of the departments so she actually manages client files or something. It's better than helping me dodge calls and keeping my schedule." She ate more of her fish. "Sure I want you to do this. Like I said. I trust you. Just because you don't remember your past doesn't mean you'll be a swiss cheese brain about picking up my dry cleaning or making sure the people I meet with have coffee, right?"

There was no way in hell adult Rogue would agree to something like. Teen Rogue, on the other hand was getting excited. "Wow, Ah bet Ah'd get to meet a buncha famous people too!". She munched on a fry happily. "That's jus' so cool. Okay. Ah'm in! Do Ah get a business card? Do Ah get any perks?". She jumped up and rushed to her closet, rifling throgh her clothes. "Boss! Ah ain't got nothin' ta wear! Ima need an advance on mah first pay..."

Adrienne passed her the card she'd written on and followed it up with a thin manila folder. "I wrote your starting salary on that card. And here's the overview packet I give to all new employees. But I can save you some reading on the 'perks' section. You'll get a card that entitles you to buy the Meridian line of clothing at cost at any retailer's, and free admittance to any of the parties the company throws. Also, there's a rota for the company seats to the box at the Met, the box at Fenway, and the box at Madison Square Garden. That's pretty much all I can do for perks, unless you want to take up modelling," she smirked.

"To get you started with clothes, you also have access to what's called The Closet. Basically," she explained, though she paused for another sip of beer before continuing, "when models take jobs for designers or magazines or whatever, they get to keep the clothes they wear. But sometimes they don't want them. So all the clothes they don't want go to what we call The Closet. And as my personal assistant, you'd have access to take home whatever you like in there." Usually that perk was only open to senior staff, but Adrienne had always offered it to her assistant as well, as a gesture of good will.

If Rogue's eyes could have gotten any bigger, they would've fallen out of her head. "Holy crap! That's a lot of money! Are ya sure? Ah ain't worth this much! And the clothes too? Seriously? Oh mah gawd." She sunk slowly to the floor, the card dangling between her hands. "This is too much, Adri. Ah can't accept this. Ah didn't even apply!"


Laughing, Adrienne waved Rogue off again. "I forgot. Your nineteen year-old brain probably thinks that's a lot of money. Inflation, baby. That's just slightly more than minimum wage now." Actually it was comfortably more, but still at the low end of the scale compared to some of the wage brackets at Meridian Enterprises. "And don't worry about not applying. I rarely take applications for personal assistants. It's usually more of a feeling I get about people." Actually, it was usually because she felt sorry for someone. But she wasn't going to tell Rogue that.


"Oh." That was a bit deflating, but still. The perks were amazing. And really, any money was better than no money. She would also have to find a way to pay the Professor back. She hated living off of people. Maybe she'd find a way to pay him rent. "Well, Ah'm in." Rogue got off the floor and walked to Adrienne. "Ah'd shake your hand, but Ah ain't got no gloves. So Ima jus' salute you instead, Boss-Wife." Which she then did. "When do Ah start?"



"You started with the salute," she assured her friend with a grin. "No, wait," she corrected. "You started by drinking beer with me. Just make sure you bring me the beer next time."