Priest-De Ulloa Household, Notting Hill, London. Late Tuesday Night/Early Weds Morning.

[icecoldfrost]

It was another dream that had startled Emma awake with a jerk, her iron control the only thing that kept her from screaming as she did so. It took a moment to regain her bearings, and then she slipped out of bed, quietly making her way to the kitchen for a glass of water to take back upstairs with her.

She was as quiet as possible as she put the drink on the nightstand and climbed back into bed, one of her trashy mystery novels in-hand. Emma didn't want to wake Jack, but it was unlikely she was going to be falling back asleep anytime soon.

[OOC: For that one, please!]

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[bitten_notshy]

"Tell me about it?" Jack wheedled. "I'm up anyhow. You can hear about my fascinating dream in exchange. I think I was planting potatoes."

[icecoldfrost]

"You don't want to hear it," Emma sighed, setting the book aside - it wasn't going to get read - and curling up with him. "It's just my own fucked-up subconscious throwing a tantrum."

[bitten_notshy]

"You say that as if I haven't spent the last year and a half devoting a great deal of time and care to your fucked-up subconscious, and vice versa," Jack pointed out as he traced a hand along her side. "Is there anything I could do?"

[icecoldfrost]

Emma thought it over for a moment, simply laying there and letting him pet her. Part of her tempted to take the out, and tell him there was nothing he could do, since that was the truth. There was nothing active Jack could do, and she knew this wasn't something her fearsome terrier could charge in and fix for her.

But.

"What have you been told about the latest 'incident' at school?" she finally asked instead. She'd promised she'd tell him about it weeks ago, and a tiny little part of her wanted desperately to just get it out before it festered even more.

[bitten_notshy]

"People were taken by a man in tight pants," Jack answered. "There were goblins. Communication off the island was cut off. It sounds as if it was a scare when it went on, but nothing -- I didn't realize it had stayed with you."

[icecoldfrost]

"I was one of the people taken," Emma replied quietly. "He did something that took away my ability to use my telepathy. I still had it, I could hear people, but I couldn't block it out or look into people's minds."

It hurt trying to put it into words, but Emma swallowed and kept talking. "Ender saw the worst of it, I think. Crazy little Emma wasn't so so little, but was acting plenty crazy because I couldn't keep the other students out, and so many of them were panicking. I could hear the people in town and on other parts of the island, and it wouldn't shut up."

"Right up until the point that I lost the fight against his control, and then the voices didn't bother me anymore. I couldn't remember why I wanted to leave in the first place. I was safe, and happy, and I was going to be a princess. Jono had to drag me out kicking and screaming."

[bitten_notshy]

The color drained from Jack's face as he clutched Emma more closely, as if he were afraid she'd fly away to be a princess now/. It was far worse than he'd understood.

"You went mad," he said. "It would make anyone mad. I don't know which would be worse if that had happened to me -- remembering the voices, or remembering I'd given in at the end. I didn't understand how bad it was, forgive me."

[icecoldfrost]

"I didn't give in." There was a fierce, quiet pride behind that. "I lost -" which held a note of disgust and self-loathing. "-against whatever magic he was using, but I didn't give in."

[bitten_notshy]

"I didn't mean it as an insult," Jack said, realizing how it had sounded. "You were swept under, then. I'm glad you emerged, but the drag on you must have been horrible."

[icecoldfrost]

"I know." Emma shut her eyes and just breathed in, secure in the knowledge that there were no goblins here, no sparkling spheres. "We were safe. Wanted. We were going to be princes and princesses, learn magic, and there was a masquerade ball. I wore a gown made out of silk and feathers, and I wanted to stay."

Her lips quirked into a small smile. "Of course, the rest of the time he dressed us in leather pants and corsets. I think Jono would have blushed if he hadn't been busy trying to knock some sense into my head."

[bitten_notshy]

"You're already a queen, no matter what you wear," Jack said, trying not to let his horror show. What she described was Hell dressed in tinsel for a fashion show.

He gave in to a long, shuddery breath. "It sounds as if I owe Jono thanks. Without him, I would have lost you. What did he say?"

[icecoldfrost]

"He said a lot of things," she sighed. "The one that really stuck with me is that it would never be enough for me. That he'd been worried, and I could 'be so much more than princess of scurrying things that bump in th'night.' And I think part of me knew that I'd never be happy just taking what I was given."

"But in the nightmare, Jono doesn't come. The Jhinka do. Only when I flay their minds at the Goblin King's command, it's all of you laying there dead. Thousands upon thousands wearing faces of people I know." Emma gave a little shrug. "My subconscious is not getting the memo about getting over it."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack didn't say much of anything for a moment, cooing a bit as he rubbed along her spine. She was safe, that what mattered.

Then: "They aren't much good at getting over things, subconsciouses," he said, matter-of fact. "I'm surprised you've never caught me dreaming about -- before Sebastien."

Which he did with some frequency, and more often since his last trip to Bristol. Not that he remembered many details, but there was sharp hunger and dirt and fangs in his dreams.

"It helps to know we're safe now."

[icecoldfrost]

"I may have, once or twice," she replied, giving him a little smile. "I'm a depository of secrets, darling. I don't go around tattling about people's dreams, especially if I don't know who they belong to."

[bitten_notshy]

"How many of those secrets are your own?" Jack asked, returning that smile a bit feebly. "Darling, if there's anything I can do for you -- let me know."

[icecoldfrost]

"Me? I'm an open book," Emma fibbed. "I couldn't begin to think of secrets of my own."

"This...helps," she continued quietly. "Just talking about it, and not having someone act like I'm going to break just because I got a little bruised."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack smirked a bit. "An open book written in Sanskrit, that's you," he said. "And of course you won't break. Your parents didn't, the streets didn't, Fandom hasn't -- how would some blighter with corsets manage it?"

[icecoldfrost]

"They were very nice corsets," Emma pointed out. "I might have stayed just for the wardrobe."

No, she wouldn't have, but she shared the mental image with Jack of her in her white corset and leather pants. "I'm rather surprised how comfortable it was, but then I ask myself if he was making me think I was comfortable, or if it was me. And then I just give myself a headache."

[bitten_notshy]

"I always heard a well-made one is perfectly comfortable once it's on," shared the Victorian. "Never got the chance to try it myself..."

[icecoldfrost]

"I would hope not," she teased. "You lack the curves for one, Jack."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack laughed. "I'm not playing dress-up for you," he said. "Even if you beg and flatter me like that."

He wasn't sure if it was really the time to be this frivolous, but in the moment it felt right.

[icecoldfrost]

Emma just stuck out her tongue at him. "I wouldn't even dream of it," she retorted, finding comfort in the familiar banter. "Besides, a Frost never begs."

"And it would take a great deal of flattery to get me to dress up for you!"

[bitten_notshy]

"But I like what you're wearing now," Jack answered, hand toying with a convenient hem. "It's soft. Flattery into a corset can wait."

He thought he could do it.

[icecoldfrost]

"You like what I'm wearing right now because it's soft, and I'm wearing it in your bed," Emma replied with good humor, letting herself relax a little bit more. Talking had helped, surprisingly, and Emma was feeling safe enough to enjoy being awake with him now, curled together like this.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack tried to look innocent -- which wasn't hard, pleased as he was to feel the tension leaving her. "Isn't that how everyone picks his favorite styles?"