Room 222, Saturday Night

[bitten_notshy]

Jack had meant to take Emma on a nice, wholesome, head-clearing walk. Just co-TAs taking a break from the overcrowded common room; nothing more.

... strange how the path lead straight to his room, and how he was grateful to find it empty.

"Acceptable company?"

Comments

[icecoldfrost]

"You're usually acceptable company," Emma declared loftily. She still hadn't let go of his hand from when they left the common room, and right now she was trying very hard not to think about how warm and nice his fingers felt. "Even when you're being proper."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack rubbed his fingers gently through hers, thinking almost the same thing as he closed the door with his free hand. Her hand fit in his perfectly.

"But you like me better when I'm improper?" he asked, trying not to laugh.

[icecoldfrost]

"I like most people better when they're being improper," she answered, trying not to blush as he played with her hand. "The hypocrisy of the 'well-behaved' set doesn't do much for me."

[bitten_notshy]

"And I think it's worse yet at home," Jack said, with a little snort, then leaned toward her. There was something about Emma's eyes he couldn't tear his attention away from.

[icecoldfrost]

"Isn't it usually," she said, looking at him with a small smile. "Most of the students here haven't learned the worst artifices yet, have they?"

...Why was he looking at her like that? Did she have something on her face?

[bitten_notshy]

... what were they talking about? Jack couldn't think about anything except Emma's hand and the way she was looking at him. He brought his free hand up to run it over her shoulder -- not an intimate touch, not yet, but definitely one headed in that direction.

He swallowed. "Emma."

[icecoldfrost]

Emma couldn't help the little shiver that passed through her at his touch, and she took a breath to steady herself.

"What?" she asked quietly, feeling as if speaking in a normal tone would break something delicate.

[bitten_notshy]

"Nothing," Jack said, not looking away, not at all, and time was frozen just then.

He leaned in to try to kiss her. Bad idea -- he knew it -- but he had to.

[icecoldfrost]

Emma was, to be blunt, in shock. Not that she hadn't expected this, on some level, but she hadn't actually thought about it.

She froze, just for a split second (although it seemed to her like an eternity) before very, very hesitantly kissing him back.

Homework. She should think of this as homework for their class, since being the TA when you hadn't even kissed anyone ever was a bit wrong.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack felt the hesitation in her kiss and kept his lips light against hers despite his own hunger. Still, he couldn't stop himself from squeezing the hand he still held, or from pressing his body more closely against hers.

[icecoldfrost]

Breathe, Em.

She made herself relax a bit, letting herself enjoy the play of his lips against hers, and the way he was holding her. She could feel his desires thrumming against the surface of her mind, but Emma managed to keep herself separate from it for the moment.

This was... nice, and she deepened the kiss slightly, pleased he was letting her set the pace so far.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack deepened the kiss more, opening his mouth to flick his tongue across her lips. His hands moved to circle her waist, met at the small of her back.

He was barely thinking, really; his mind was full of the way her lips tasted and the scent of whatever she used on her skin.

[icecoldfrost]

Emma reacted on instinct, wrapping her arms around his neck and letting the last of her inhibitions drop away enough to kiss him back aggressively.

He felt nice and tasted wonderful, and Emma would be perfectly happy to do this all night.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack kept kissing her, trying to press her back into the door. He couldn't do this all night -- he'd like to move on to other things -- but it was a wonderful start.

[icecoldfrost]

There was a brief flare of panic as a memory of the last time a boy had tried to corner Emma for a kiss rose up, and she gasped against his mouth; trapped!nobadcan'tbecornerednonono...

...and then very firmly stepped on that impulse, reaching out to tug him against her tighter and letting him pin her against the door. She was Emma Frost, and she wasn't going to let a ghost of days past ruin her night.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack kept kissing her, pressing forward slightly, hands still resting over her shirt, before taking a break to breathe, smirk, and wonder if the bed was an option. Her gasp suggested to him that it might be.

"You're right," he told her leaning up to nip at her earlobe. "Being improper is much better."

[icecoldfrost]

Emma let her head fall back against the door, eyes drifting shut as he teased her. "All of the fun, none of the bother," she agreed, letting her fingers play with the hair at the back of his head.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack made a thick noise in his throat that might have been a laugh if his mouth hadn't been otherwise occupied.

The kissing was going wonderfully, so his hand found its way to the hem of her shirt and started lifting up, fingers tracing against the flat of her stomach.

[icecoldfrost]

The slide of his fingers against her skin was positively electric, and this time when Emma whimpered, something inside her mind faltered, and her power surged out without her consent.

Telepathy wasn't just for reading thoughts. It could be used to manipulate the brain and the nervous system, and here it did just that; setting up a feedback loop where she could feel each touch as he felt it, amplifying it, sending it to him, and vice versa.

Absolutely intoxicating, and Emma had no idea how to make it stop.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack didn't know what she was doing; he just knew that something was making this feel like more, like Sebastien's kiss multiplied by an orgasm and with something he didn't know to recognize as feminine added in to it.

His teeth pressed down more harshly against her mouth, and his blunt nails clenched at her bare skin.

[icecoldfrost]

"Jack," she moaned, kissing harder and pressing against him despite herself. "Can't.."

< control it/stop it/dangerous/I haven't.../need/can't... > Her mind was a tumble of confusion, terror, and desire, and Emma couldn't reign it in. She was caught up in her power, and it was exhilarating.

< Want, but...stop, > she sent, unable to vocalize aloud her thoughts. < Don't want to hurt you. >

Of course, stopping would require removing her mouth from his, and she was being a bit slow to act on her decision.

Stupid stupid stupid powers. And stupid her, for thinking she could have this and not have something go horribly wrong.

[bitten_notshy]

Something cracked through Jack's happy haze -- Emma's voice, in his head. He would have stopped from the surprise of that even if she hadn't been thinking he should stop.

He leaned back, unable to pull his body away from hers. Surprise was in his eyes as they sought hers out. "You couldn't hurt me, Emma, not with this," he said first, because pride demanded that even if he was wrong. "And what was that?"

[icecoldfrost]

She winced, still getting a buzz from their contact. "I don't know," she said miserably, rubbing at her head with one hand. Still, she didn't push him away, letting Jack and the door hold her upright as her head kept spinning.

"I, ah, created a sensory loop, I think. I mean, I know the theory, sort of," she'd poured over the few biology books she'd 'liberated' from bookstores and libraries for Hank, reading everything she could about the brain and how it worked, "but I didn't know I could do that, or how I did that, and oh my god, I didn't cause any neurological damage, did I? Can you feel your fingers?"

[bitten_notshy]

Jack understood about a tenth of that -- look, neuroscience wasn't exactly a major field of study in 1899 -- but he pulled away stepped back to a more polite distance and obediently held his hands up. Wiggled his fingers, even.

"I'm fine," he said, some chill creeping into his voice even though he knew she hadn't done it on purpose. "Are you?"

The question was all polite concern as the lust drained out of him. He didn't like people in his head, thank you.

[icecoldfrost]

Emma didn't need to be a mind reader to know she'd ruined everything, and her face crumpled. "I'm sorry," she whispered, inching away so she could open the door and go hide somewhere far away from anyone else. "I didn't mean... it was an accident..."

Despite how fascinating the floor was right now, Emma forced herself to look him in the eyes and produced a weak smile. "I think this is where I am supposed to make a joke about your lips sending people out of their mind, especially girls who haven't previously been kissed, but I can't think of anything especially witty," she said quietly. "I should probably go."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack could see she was hurting; he just wasn't sure he cared. He stepped back, folding his arms and willing his heart rate to go down.

"I never would have known I was your first kiss," he said. It was only that he liked Emma at all and knew his temper would pass that kept him from following that with something cruel about how she could pass for a professional.

"I think you should probably take yourself elsewhere, yes. I'll see you in class."

[icecoldfrost]

Something about his tone caused Emma to straighten her posture, chin lifting slightly as she wrapped her usual cool exterior around herself like a blanket. Safe.

She had never dealt well with being dismissed by other people.

"I'll take that in the spirit in which it was meant," she said sweetly, anger flashing in her eyes. "I will see you in class, Mr. Priest."

With that, she turned around, hand reaching for the doorknob so she could leave. Part of her wanted to stay, make him understand that she hadn't done it on purpose, but she wasn't going to grovel when he had just thrown her vulnerability back in her face.

She would not make that mistake again.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack could have stopped her. He wouldn't. Instead, he ostentatiously took up his place on the bed and found his copy of Demosthenes. He wasn't reading so much as looking at the words, but his point was still made.

Stupid stupid stupid girls.

"Goodbye, Miss Frost."