The work week was finally over, and Ellie insisted that she deserved the second glass of wine she poured for herself, undoing all of the work she'd put in at the gym just hours before. There was nothing better than releasing the stress through a series of heavy sprints on the treadmill and demolishing her abs until she was absolutely exhausted. It felt good, to be strong and be in control of her body; Ellie was at least vain enough to take pleasure in keeping her body strong. There wasn't much muscle showing beneath her skin, but she lived alone and wanted to be dependent on only herself for things around the house.
She woke in the middle of the night, not an uncommon occurrence and usually was for a big drink of water, but this was different.. It was like she woke up in someone else's apartment, but she checked quickly for a man next to her in the bed. Frowning when there was no warm body next to her to explain why she felt so strange in this place, she got up to head towards the bathroom, but as soon as she hit the cold tile and caught her reflection, she knew exactly why.
Staring back at her was Emma Frost. Wherever Ellie Franklin had gone, she couldn't say, but Emma stared in disbelief at her reflection, leaning forward and touching the smooth skin of her cheek. "What the fuck.." She splashed water onto her face, hoping that would wake her up from the dream she was having, that she would realize that she'd had too much to drink and really she was in some random apartment. But that was her toothbrush, her bathrobe, her lipstick.. Touching her hair, Emma took a deep breath, shaking her head. How was this possible?
Emma Frost had always been one for power and control. She had expected a certain level of control her entire life, and at this very moment, hers was spinning violently away from her. She desperately wanted answers and she wanted them immediately.
This migraine pulsing through her mind was so familiar, like when she was young and she would be paralyzed with the pain, right before her powers began to leak through her conscious. Closing her eyes seemed to help, but it brings back flashes of memories, of her disapproving father telling her to get out of his office with her terrible report card, of her brother's warnings to keep her chin up. She remembers her teacher, how she wanted to do better on the quiz to impress him and she peaked into his mind, his voice filling her thoughts with things that a teacher should never be thinking about one of his pupils. Emma had tapped into her powers to gather the answers from those around her, and when she immediately started doing better the other girls called her a freak.
Emma remembered the teacher she'd ran away with, sneaking out past her father's security guard and her butler and down to his house, where she knew his surprise before he even had uttered a word; the thoughts reached out to her, calling to her, begging to be read and Emma just couldn't say no. The power was tempting. She had spiraled out of control and dragged him down with her, but in the end he had pushed her away and called her a freak. But Emma knew better.
The sun rose low and foggy in the morning, and after a night of both staring at her reflection and running back and forth to the bathroom, Emma decided enough was enough. She stalked through the apartment which seemed similar and foreign all at once. The accents of diamonds did not go unnoticed, and Emma laughed darkly. That was ironic. At least both she and Ellie had the same tastes.
Once the sun beamed high the apartment was white, sterile looking. It was almost too white and too clean. The sun bounced off of every surface and blinded her until she could stumble to pull the drapes closed, and sighed in relief when the darkness finally overtook the huge apartment. Water and painkillers were the next step, but her hand hesitated on the cap, remembering how terribly her mother had battled with the white pills.. Whose mother? The two blondes bled together in so many areas, their lives blurring at the line that Emma couldn't decipher. Were they both so similar? Emma's father was manipulative and apparently Ellie's was as well, assuming the note on the counter that read "you should probably call dad back" meant that they had extremely strained relationships. Or maybe that was just the headache pounding through her head..
Flashes of glittering diamonds clouded her vision. She could remember looking down and seeing her skin sparkle in the ultimate defense and feeling just how powerful and invincible she was; that feeling alone she could get drunk on. She could remember looking at a mass of flowing red hair, and then of shattering and feeling as if her entire world had exploded, and being literally put together by moving hands. It made her sick just thinking about it. They'd had their ups and then their serious downs, and right now reaching out to the redhead was her only move.
She felt weak. Emma Frost was never weak. But currently she didn't have any connection to her powers, as hard as she was trying to reach out, to feel something. To feel anything. Emma didn't have access to what made her strong which made her feel vulnerable and exposed. Her powers made her strong and she was currently helpless within the walls of her apartment, unable to do anything. Was it safe to go outside? What about the others? Surely, she couldn't be the only one. "Get it together, Frost."
Maybe with enough rest, and enough wine, she would be able to move the bottle into the recycling bin the way she'd been able to so effortlessly. She had never felt like this, so powerless and unable to feel the energies around her. It made her reach out to the one person she'd never expect to return a favor, the one whom she had hurt probably the most of all, but it was that red hair that was there to lend a hand and she had never been more grateful for that.
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