Best Frenemies

Author’s Note: When I picture slash pairings from the X-Men canon in my mind’s eye, this one is a no-brainer, inspired by Uncanny issues 150-151. The X-Treme series also fed this fic, particularly the scene when Emma gives Ororo a new school uniform.


The air conditioning was inviting enough to crowd the main den and game room that Saturday. The thermometer read a blistering one hundred-five degrees; even the outdoor pool felt like bath water.

Ororo craved her privacy; her new Stephen King novel practically demanded it. She made her escape to the Professor’s empty study and lounged back on the leather chaise. The noise and chatter from the den was diminished to a low thrum once she closed the heavy oak door. She lost herself in the prose and near silence until someone had the temerity to knock.

Her sigh was disgusted and deep. Ororo bookmarked her spot and laid the novel aside. The leather squeaked slightly as she rose and went to answer her summons.

“Whatever it is better be important,” she warned before turning the knob.

“Oh, but it is. Mind if I come in?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s moot. I’m coming in anyway,” Emma informed her matter-of-factly, stepping forward and giving the door a light press. She closed the gap between them, effectively invading Ororo’s personal space so that she had to step back.

“Then why even ask?”

“I wanted to be polite.” Ororo rolled her eyes and released an exasperated breath. She was surprised to see that Emma held a cardboard drink carrier. The delicious scent of café lattes filled the study, piquing her.

“Why did you bring that? I wanted to be alone. The closed door was indicative of that,” Ororo pointed out. “Unless you brought that for someone else, in which case you can remind them that I was here first. Or I can remind them.”

“I brought it for you and me.” She smoothly removed both drinks from the carrier, setting one on the desk. “You like hazelnut, right?”

“I never told you that.”

“Educated guess.”

Bitch. Ororo had little patience for telepathy; Jean was the exception to the rule that it was a gift too easily abused. Emma’s smile was coy. She peered up at Ororo through her dark brown lashes as she returned with the cup.

“Here.” She agitated it slightly, letting the ice cubes inside rattle.

“All right.” She took it warily, annoyed that Emma didn’t release her grip immediately. “Thank you.”

“Any time.”

“Liar.”

“Suit yourself.” Emma’s expression was innocent and she shrugged. The motion made her breasts bounce almost imperceptibly.

“What’s on your mind?”

“No one ever asks me that question anymore.” She seated herself in Charles’ chair behind his desk and took the liberty of leaning back and propping her feet on his blotter, crossing her ankles. Dimly, Ororo admired her shoes, gleaming white leather Jimmy Choos with a lethal stiletto heel.

“Too easy to assume things, I suppose.” Ororo raked her eyes over the rest of her outfit. White, naturally. Low-cut, equally obvious. She wore her long blonde hair in a low ponytail parted on the side, a concession to the heat; the look was fresh and easygoing, at odds with how she usually presented herself. Ororo took a sip of the Peet’s latte. It was delicious.

It irritated her.

“But you did ask me what was on my mind, in the meantime. I have a favor to ask. More of a proposition.”

“I’m on hiatus,” Ororo argued.

“No, no,” Emma told her, waving her hand. “Not field work.”

“My class schedule is full.”

“Not that, either.”

Ororo was stumped.

“Then what else are you here for?”

“Something…personal.”

“How personal?” Ororo fought against forming any theories. She kept her face closed. She took another sip of the latte, licking a fleck of whipped cream from her lip.

Emma’s eyes dilated as she watched her.

“Very.”

“Very well. Don’t leave me in suspense.”

“I don’t know how to put this delicately.”

“Yes, you do.”

“First…could you…drink some again?” Ororo eyebrows knitted together.

“No. First, you have to know that I find such a request bizarre. Second, you and I aren’t in the habit of giving each other favors, more often than not, not even the time of day. So you have to excuse me if I find this confusing and a little unsettling. Especially when you seem to be dancing around it. People dance around odd requests, particularly the ones that will be denied.” Emma’s easy smile evaporated. Her blue-gray eyes went flat.

“Fine.” She took a deep breath and expelled her words bluntly, quickly. “I need a release.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. A release.”

“From duty? I don’t know why you couldn’t simply ask Sage, she’s as qualified-“

“A physical release,” she interrupted. The rest of Ororo’s words died on her lips.

“Physical. As in…”

“Sexual.”

“So this isn’t just a proposition. You’re…propositioning me.” She stressed the word with gravity and disbelief.

“Yes. I am.”

“Then the answer is no. I don’t have to describe why.”

“Not even if I describe why I asked you?”

“Emma, you’ve taken leave of your senses.”

“No. I know this violates all sense and reason. But I know that I’ve run out of ideas.” Despite herself, Ororo continued to listen. She couldn’t explain why, in hindsight, when she looked back on that afternoon, but at the moment, she was compelled.

Something in Emma’s face changed. She became the negotiator once again, making it easy for Ororo to picture her as one of the Hellfire Club’s chairman and as the headmistress of an elite academy. She swung her legs to the floor and sat up straight, leaning her elbows on the desk. With her fingers steepled beneath her chin, she told her “You don’t like me. That makes you perfect.”

“I don’t see where you’re going with this, but you’re right. I don’t. You can’t blame me.”

“Never mind that. I need someone who can detach themselves from me. Someone who won’t pity me. Who can be harder than me, when the time comes.”

A strange flush swept over Ororo and rooted her to the spot. She toyed with the straw in her latte, plunging it in and out of the whipped cream.

Why did her stomach pitch with something resembling excitement?

“Again, why can’t you ask Sage? She would be well-suited to this sort of-“

“She’s ruthless, I know. Yet she still feels a hint of loyalty toward me, due to our previous working relationship. Not fealty, just respect.” Emma took a long sip of her latte, draining half of it. Ororo watched the movement of her full lips around the straw with interest. ‘I don’t have any such thing to fear from you.”

“Again, you can’t blame me.”

“You already know me,” Emma went on. “Physically. You know what makes me tick.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do. You know better than anyone, don’t you?”

It dawned on Ororo what she meant, and it hit her hard.

“Bitch,” she said aloud. “Don’t you dare. Oh, don’t you even dare mention that to me.”

“You’ve been inside me. Literally. You’d hold that control over me. Think of it. It doesn’t tempt you?”

It did tempt her, but resentment bubbled inside her.

“You know how it feels when someone touches me. When you’ve touched me. Don’t you?” Emma’s voice was a low purr. “Don’t you?” she repeated.

“You’re demented.”

“No. Just desperate. I have needs. I know you know how to fulfill those needs.”

“You haven’t even said what these ‘needs’ arose from.”

“Scott.”

“Ah.” Ororo slapped her forehead for emphasis. “That explains it all,” she mocked.

“He’s gone this week.”

“Yes.”

“But he’s elsewhere lately when he’s with me.”

“And where might that be?”

“With Jean.” Emma bowed her face to stare at her hands, now twisting nervously. “Always with Jean.”

“Emma…”

“Don’t. Don’t tell me what I know you want to tell me. Or what he keeps telling me. Yes, Scott’s with me now.”

“You won. That should make you happy,” she accused.

“It should,” Emma offered. “Really, it should. But…”

“But?”

“He loved her. In his own needy, dependent way, he loved her. She was an ungrateful bitch-“

“Watch your mouth!” Ororo snapped. THOOOOOOMMMM… Thunder gathered in the distance. Ororo’s eyes began to swirl slowly from their signature blue to a milky white. She narrowed them in warning. “Don’t. You. Dare. Scott wasn’t the only one who loved her. Remember that before you slander her to me.”

“Touchy.” Emma sighed. “He loves me for different reasons than why he cared for her. I let him be himself. Despite what you all believe, he isn’t at my beck and call. He’s grown a lot since we’ve been together and realized more of who he is, and who he can be.”

“But he obviously isn’t everything you need if you’ve come here. Is he?”

“No. Not like…” Emma paused, then pondered what to say. “Not in some ways…”

“I think we’re done here, then. I don’t want to hear about what’s between you and Scott. It’s none of my business. He’s my friend, but things aren’t as close between us when he betrayed Jean. She was my sister. She’ll always hold that place in my heart.”

“She attacked me,” Emma pointed out. “She wasn’t lily-white and pure. I don’t know to convince any of you of that.”

“Don’t try so hard. And I won’t let you tarnish my memories of her.”

“Suit yourself. You’ve chosen to forget that she had a dark side, and that she’s attacked you before, too. In more ways than one.” Ororo’s eyes slowly reverted back to normal, and the clouds retreated from the sun, disappointing the children who’d ventured outside into the shade. Ororo heard the rear door in the kitchen opening and closing again but ignored it.

“And you, Ororo, have a dark side.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I know this about you. I’ve tasted it. We’ve exchanged minds, but you left behind your psychic fingerprint in my consciousness. You’re no Pollyanna. It’s refreshing. It gives you a little spice.”

“That’s nice. Get out.” Ororo showed her the door, whipping it open.

“Think about my offer, my dear.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Of course. You’re ‘your own woman,” Emma muttered, making finger quotes in the air as she headed for the door. Once again, she brushed too close for comfort. Ororo stared her down.

She smelled Emma’s perfume. Focused on her lips, painted in that iridescent blue-white that made a person unable to look away from her mouth. Ororo’s face was hard and held no concession.

She could have sworn Emma’s breast brushed her arm in passing. It burned her.

“Think about it and get back to me.” She swept out of the study. Ororo stared after her incredulously.

She didn’t know why she didn’t call after her.