Places out of Time
Title: Places out of Time
Author: Alsike
Fandom: X-Men/Criminal Minds x-over
Pairing: Emma Frost/Emily Prentiss
Rating: PG-13 (Have we realized that I have a tendency to skirt the smut?)
Word Count: 836
Prompt: 009. Hideaway
Apologies: Didi-era
“Do you think she’ll be all right?”
Emma twisted her arm through Emily’s and dragged her down the path into the woods. “She’ll be fine. Do you have any idea of what the servants think I will do to them if anything happens to her?”
“No.” Emily looked at her. “Do you?”
Emma grimaced. “Yes, actually. It’s pretty horrible. I don’t know how they got such an idea.”
Emily laughed and let herself be tugged into the forest.
“What is this place? I never thought you’d just have a house in Vermont. Do you ever come here?”
“It used to belong to one of my mother’s sisters. We spent summers here before she and my father fell out and we weren’t invited back. My father bankrupted her and her husband for vengeance and they were forced to sell it along with most of their other assets. A few years back I noticed it was up for sale and bought it. It wasn’t even sixty thousand.”
“Sentimental reasons?”
Emma shrugged. “I have a few good memories here, but mainly it was an investment.”
They broke through the barrier of trees and stepped into a clearing that sloped down to a riverbank. Rope swings hung over the river, and a rough tree house sat in the branches of a monstrous gnarled old tree.
“Oh!” Emily stepped back in surprise. She had dreamt of something like this as a child. The closest she had come was two weeks on a lake in Michigan with a dock and a sailboat before being dragged back into the endless grind of parties and clattering, terrifying airplane rides.
Emma was already halfway up the tree.
“Christian and I built this.”
Emily eyed it askance and wouldn’t climb up.
Emma laughed. “Christian, myself, and two under-gardeners built this. Don’t worry. I had it all checked out before we came. It’s still sturdy.”
Emily tentatively scaled the makeshift ladder and wobbled unhappily as she tried to get over the side. Emma grabbed her and pulled her up. She flopped on her stomach and gasped in relief to be on something solid.
“You really are not the tomboy you pretend to be.”
Emily looked up and scowled. “I was repressed as a child.”
Emma nodded. “Brothers are important means of avoiding repression.” She leaned back and looked up at the sky through the canopy. Emily rolled over and sat up, testing out the wood.
The tree house was a simple flat platform with a low railing around the sides and a small peaked roof. A few leaves had settled on it, but otherwise the structure seemed to have been swept recently. One or two beams were fresh cut wood.
“Do you miss him?”
Emma glanced at him and shook her head. “I’ve missed him for a long time. Even before he was gone, I missed the time we spent together. I was never happy that he had to grow up and leave me behind. If I had him back, that feeling wouldn’t go away.”
“Your sisters never came up here?”
“No. Cordelia was too little, and Adrienne was horrified of anything that might put her in a close proximity to dirt.”
The wind picked up then and the tree creaked alarmingly. The leaves rustled overhead and Emily scooted closer to Emma, pressing her body against her side.
Emma’s arm wrapped around her waist, as if it were natural. “I was so angry when I found out we weren’t coming back here,” she said musingly. “But now I wonder whether it was a good thing we didn’t come back. I don’t have any bad memories associated with it. I never had to find my brother passed out up here, or blowing one of the under-gardeners.” She shook her head. “Still, it would have been a good place to come when I was trying to start smoking.” Emily laughed at that. Definitely better than hanging half out a window and hoping, desperately, that your mother, with her bloodhound sense of smell, didn’t walk by.
“I never brought anyone here before.” Emma’s eyes slid over her, and Emily wondered if there was some more subtle telepathy that made it so easy to know what she was thinking. She hadn’t had a place like this either, nowhere where it could be just kissing, just fooling around. There were always beds, always pressure and meaning and danger. Teenagers needed a chance to be teenagers. It was too hard to become an adult so quickly.
Emily moved quickly. She put her hands on Emma’s shoulders and swung her leg over to straddle her lap. “You brought me.”
Emma grinned and leaned back on her palms. “I seem to bring you a lot of places I never brought anyone before.”
Emily laughed. “What’s with that?”
When she leaned down to kiss her, Emma closed her eyes and parted her lips, and Emily wondered if she was kissing her Emma, or a girl-child who had died without the chance to just fall in love.
Author: Alsike
Fandom: X-Men/Criminal Minds x-over
Pairing: Emma Frost/Emily Prentiss
Rating: PG-13 (Have we realized that I have a tendency to skirt the smut?)
Word Count: 836
Prompt: 009. Hideaway
Apologies: Didi-era
“Do you think she’ll be all right?”
Emma twisted her arm through Emily’s and dragged her down the path into the woods. “She’ll be fine. Do you have any idea of what the servants think I will do to them if anything happens to her?”
“No.” Emily looked at her. “Do you?”
Emma grimaced. “Yes, actually. It’s pretty horrible. I don’t know how they got such an idea.”
Emily laughed and let herself be tugged into the forest.
“What is this place? I never thought you’d just have a house in Vermont. Do you ever come here?”
“It used to belong to one of my mother’s sisters. We spent summers here before she and my father fell out and we weren’t invited back. My father bankrupted her and her husband for vengeance and they were forced to sell it along with most of their other assets. A few years back I noticed it was up for sale and bought it. It wasn’t even sixty thousand.”
“Sentimental reasons?”
Emma shrugged. “I have a few good memories here, but mainly it was an investment.”
They broke through the barrier of trees and stepped into a clearing that sloped down to a riverbank. Rope swings hung over the river, and a rough tree house sat in the branches of a monstrous gnarled old tree.
“Oh!” Emily stepped back in surprise. She had dreamt of something like this as a child. The closest she had come was two weeks on a lake in Michigan with a dock and a sailboat before being dragged back into the endless grind of parties and clattering, terrifying airplane rides.
Emma was already halfway up the tree.
“Christian and I built this.”
Emily eyed it askance and wouldn’t climb up.
Emma laughed. “Christian, myself, and two under-gardeners built this. Don’t worry. I had it all checked out before we came. It’s still sturdy.”
Emily tentatively scaled the makeshift ladder and wobbled unhappily as she tried to get over the side. Emma grabbed her and pulled her up. She flopped on her stomach and gasped in relief to be on something solid.
“You really are not the tomboy you pretend to be.”
Emily looked up and scowled. “I was repressed as a child.”
Emma nodded. “Brothers are important means of avoiding repression.” She leaned back and looked up at the sky through the canopy. Emily rolled over and sat up, testing out the wood.
The tree house was a simple flat platform with a low railing around the sides and a small peaked roof. A few leaves had settled on it, but otherwise the structure seemed to have been swept recently. One or two beams were fresh cut wood.
“Do you miss him?”
Emma glanced at him and shook her head. “I’ve missed him for a long time. Even before he was gone, I missed the time we spent together. I was never happy that he had to grow up and leave me behind. If I had him back, that feeling wouldn’t go away.”
“Your sisters never came up here?”
“No. Cordelia was too little, and Adrienne was horrified of anything that might put her in a close proximity to dirt.”
The wind picked up then and the tree creaked alarmingly. The leaves rustled overhead and Emily scooted closer to Emma, pressing her body against her side.
Emma’s arm wrapped around her waist, as if it were natural. “I was so angry when I found out we weren’t coming back here,” she said musingly. “But now I wonder whether it was a good thing we didn’t come back. I don’t have any bad memories associated with it. I never had to find my brother passed out up here, or blowing one of the under-gardeners.” She shook her head. “Still, it would have been a good place to come when I was trying to start smoking.” Emily laughed at that. Definitely better than hanging half out a window and hoping, desperately, that your mother, with her bloodhound sense of smell, didn’t walk by.
“I never brought anyone here before.” Emma’s eyes slid over her, and Emily wondered if there was some more subtle telepathy that made it so easy to know what she was thinking. She hadn’t had a place like this either, nowhere where it could be just kissing, just fooling around. There were always beds, always pressure and meaning and danger. Teenagers needed a chance to be teenagers. It was too hard to become an adult so quickly.
Emily moved quickly. She put her hands on Emma’s shoulders and swung her leg over to straddle her lap. “You brought me.”
Emma grinned and leaned back on her palms. “I seem to bring you a lot of places I never brought anyone before.”
Emily laughed. “What’s with that?”
When she leaned down to kiss her, Emma closed her eyes and parted her lips, and Emily wondered if she was kissing her Emma, or a girl-child who had died without the chance to just fall in love.