Title: Most Precious Gems Author: K. M. Petravich Summary: Emma muses on a relationship she once had. Emma Frost/Madelyne Pryor. Rating: R Archive: Ask Disclaimer: They ain't mine. Note: For zeelee_penguin. I am not incapable of love. I love my students, after all. Even Jubilation, though I wouldn't mind if she would actually devote herself to her work and developing her powers, instead of anime. I see no reason to confuse love, however, with the desire for sex. My visits to the Hellfire Club are for various reasons. They are not as often as they once were, but I remain the White Queen, and shall continue to do so. I am not so foolish as to give up power. Sean pretends not to notice when I leave, and refuses to ask where I've been. I'm sure he thinks that Xavier would be shocked, or some such nonsense, if he found out. For an ex-Interpol agent, Sean is amazingly naive. The old man knows exactly what sort of woman he has teaching at the school, and he knows how to utilize this fact. It was during my May visit to the Club that I first saw her. Even among mutants, red hair will stand out. Sebastian's new pet. For a moment I thought him an idiot–had we not already tried to take Jean Grey for our own?–and then realized who it must be. Pryor. I'd thought her dead, but apparently, like her counterpart, she's not content with the afterlife. We didn't speak, even when Sebastian had left. I had business matters to discuss, potential investors to...convince, and she had objectives of her own to achieve. June came and went, without seeing her. In July, I did not make a visit, instead taking some students to Spain. Jubilation was disappointed, as I recall, that we did not, actually, see a bull running through the streets. I made a note to discontinue the school's Cartoon Network service. In August, I returned to the Club for a week's stay. My time would be even more occupied with the school term starting soon, and I wished to get as much done as possible. My third night there, I was sitting on the terrace off my room, enjoying the cool that had come with the night, when she appeared on the balcony next to me. Where I wore a satin nightgown, she wore a short robe. I was clothed in white–darling, when one is the White Queen, one may as well play the idea up–and she in green. I was surprised, faintly, never having seen her in anything but black. The colour suited her. A moment passed, where we studied each other, and she reentered her room. I was not startled to hear my door open a moment later, turning. It appealed to me that she hadn't knocked. Madelyne was intelligent. She knew enough to know that in the highest levels of the Club, sex will buy you absolutely nothing–I can, as I have in the past, choose any being I want on any given night and make them mine. It would give her no power, and form no alliances. Sometimes, however, a woman simply needs a good fuck with someone she's attracted to. If I was sleeping with Sebastian, I'd be looking for someone else, too. For that matter, I did. The man is not an imaginative lover. Her kisses were harsh, biting at my lips til I bled, and her hands were rough on my hips. When I came, she laughed–when she came, shallow gouges on her chest from my nails, she merely sighed. It surprised me when I awoke to find her sitting there with breakfast. We talked as we ate, sharing stories of other members of the Court, first, and then, sipping as I sipped my coffee and she sipped her tea, of the X-Men. She asked about some members–the Pryde girl, who I gathered she had been close to, the Summers daughter from the alternate future, whose loss in the timestream gave her a smug grin, and Nightcrawler, who she said, after a moment of silence, had always been kind to her. I asked, curious as I pushed her robe off again and led her back to my bed, if she ever missed them. She laughed and said either way, she wouldn't mourn to see them dead, before turning her mouth to my breast. We continued in that manner for several months. It gave Sebastian scowls, but he knew better than to interfere with where I found my pleasure. Once I delivered a letter to Shadowcat for her, ignoring the child's glares towards me, and brought an answer back to Madelyne. That night, she was more gentle than most, and smiled a bit more than usual. I do not believe in confusing love with sex. Nor, now, as I think about her, do I believe I loved her, or any such foolish romantic notion. We were not even friends. But we were companions. So tonight, as I do now on every visit to the Club, I sit on the terrace and enjoy the cold air of the night against my skin. And perhaps, some day, should someone ask why I've taken to wearing a ruby along with my usual diamonds, I may tell them.