Notting Hill, London, Friday Morning

[icecoldfrost]

Yesterday had been... amusing.

After getting packed at her alcove, Emma had caught her portal at the new date and time, spent a half hour scoping out her target, and then proceeded to let herself in through a second-floor rear window that had been left unlocked. Most likely because neither occupant expected agile and determined girls to climb a tree and break in to their house on a lark.

And then Emma proceeded to read a book on the couch until Jack came home to find her smirking at him over the pages, and proceeded to fuss and ply her with tea until carrying her off to the guest room and practically sitting on her until she fell asleep.

Which is how she found herself downstairs today, bundled in a robe with hair falling in her face as she sipped the coffee. Mmmmcoffee. "So, darling, is there a plan for today? Am I to be allowed out of the house yet, or do I need to pass yet more inspection?"

[OOC: NFB due to distance, house and occupant modded with permission!]

Comments

[icecoldfrost]

Emma leaned back into his hands, practically melting with approval. << I'm not devoted to the afterlife at all, >> she pointed out. << Winston had us go twice a year; Easter and Christmas, for reasons of his image, that was it. >>

<< I privately suspect that he didn't want my siblings and I to worship any god other than him. >>

[bitten_notshy]

"He was just hoping that if they said 'honor they father and thy mother' often enough, you'd ignore that some parents aren't worth honoring," Jack said, bitterness in his tone. His fingerpads dug more deeply into her flesh.

"Do you believe in hell, though? Tell me to hush if you don't want to think about it during your bath."

[icecoldfrost]

<< Hazel isn't bad, >> she objected, half-heartedly. << Just... sick. >>

It was the best defense Emma could conjure for the woman; Hazel was always heavily medicated, be it with alcohol or pills, but she wasn't hard like Winston. She just wasn't a mother.

<< And I don't. Believe in hell. >> Which to Emma, meant that Christian had chosen not to visit her last weekend. She'd stood by while they took him away, she hadn't been able to stop it.

That wasn't true. She could have, if she had used her powers, but Emma was too scared and too chicken to try it. She didn't really blame him for blaming her.

[bitten_notshy]

"And my mother was just scared and poor and trying to do her best for me," Jack answered. It was a sore point, parents were -- and one he was quick to gloss past.

"Maybe he didn't know if you'd want to talk to him," he offered, trying to paint Christian's absence in the best light. "I know he had reasons but he chose to leave you. He might be ashamed."

[icecoldfrost]

Emma snorted and shook her head. "'Shame' isn't a word in a word in Christian's vocabulary," she finally said aloud. "He always did exactly what he wanted."

[bitten_notshy]

"Then I don't know," Jack said, rarely for him. It was unsatisfying; he liked to have ideas, explanations, theories. This was beyond him. "I'm sorry. I wish I could have known him."

[icecoldfrost]

"He just had better things to do than pick-up after his baby-sister again," she said, trying for lightness. "And he would have adored you. I would have needed to fend him off with a stick."

[bitten_notshy]

"I've never had siblings," Jack noted, seeming duly flattered but not terribly serious. He wouldn't even if Christian were alive, willing and naked in front of him. "Did he look like you?"

[icecoldfrost]

"When I was little, Hazel used to say we had the same eyes," Emma admitted, sharing an image with Jack. "But we were pretty much inseparable until he moved out."

[bitten_notshy]

"He looks like you," Jack confirmed, blinking a bit at the image in his mind. he still wasn't used to Emma doing that.

He lathered shampoo between his palms, working it into her hair. "Now, close your eyes. I wouldn't want you to get soap in them."

[icecoldfrost]

"I ought to get injured more often, if I'm getting pampered this much," Emma joked, obliging him and closing her eyes. "Thank you."

[bitten_notshy]

"If I'd known you were going to run off and try to crack your head open the minute I left the island," Jack said, as warm water sluiced through her hair and down into the tub, "I would have finished out the summer there."

[icecoldfrost]

"It wasn't exactly in my planner, darling," she pointed out. "My apologies."

Not that Emma would have argued with Jack staying around, but she hadn't exactly planned on Bobby Drake breaking her brain.

"So today we do the museum and lunch, tomorrow you take me to the palace, as I promised Sookie I'd try and make the guards smile, and the Tower. What else ought we do while I'm here? There ought to be room for one more adventure."

[bitten_notshy]

"Forgiven as long as you don't do it again," Jack said, and kissed her water-warm forehead.

Thoughtfully, he recounted a few suggestions -- museums, shopping, walks through parks. "Or we can see where the days take us," he finished. "Which would be my choice."

[icecoldfrost]

"I think I like that idea," she agreed, smiling at him. "Pass me my towel then, darling, and as soon as I'm dry, we shall be on our way."