Vampire dramas all blur together after a while. Hot undead people making bad decisions while staring intensely at each other's necks. I'm sprawled across my bed, one arm behind my head, barely paying attention to the TV mounted on my wall while my mind replays my therapy session with Emma for the hundredth time today.
"Jack, this is so boring," Jubilee groans beside me, flopping dramatically onto her back. Her yellow coat is draped over my desk chair, and she's kicked off her boots, making herself completely at home in my space like she always does. "How many brooding glances can two people exchange before someone just bites someone?"
I tear my thoughts away from Emma's eyes and that perfect predatory smile. "You put it on," I remind her, gesturing vaguely toward the screen where a pale, brooding vampire is currently stalking through a foggy cemetery.
"I thought it looked good!" she protests, punching my arm lightly. A tiny spark of pink plasma accidentally discharges from her fingertips, singeing a small hole in my sleeve. "Oops. Sorry."
"It's fine," I say, barely noticing. My mind drifts back to Emma's office, to her crossed legs and her ultimatum: "If we sleep together, Jack, you're mine and mine alone."
Jubilee rolls onto her side to face me, her black pixie cut falling across her eyes. "You're not even watching," she accuses. "What are you thinking about? You've been weird all evening."
I shrug. "Just stuff from therapy."
"Emma Frost stuff," she says, not a question but a statement of fact. Her eyes narrow slightly. "What'd she do this time? Try to get in your pants again?"
"Something like that." I don't elaborate. Jubilee already has a complicated relationship with Emma; she doesn't need to hear about our almost-hookup.
On screen, the vampire finally sinks his teeth into some willing victim's neck, complete with dramatic music and excessive blood spatter. Neither of us pays much attention.
"Do you want to do something else?" I ask, sitting up and reaching for the remote. "This clearly isn't doing it for either of us."
"Actually," she says, her voice dropping to that husky tone that immediately makes my heart rate spike, "I was thinking maybe we could try something else." Her fingers trace idle patterns on my bedspread, deliberately not meeting my eyes.
I sit up straighter, now very aware of how close she is on my bed. "Like what?"
She takes a deep breath. "It's been a bit since we... you know..." She gestures vaguely between us. "If you're down, would you maybe want to try again?"
My face breaks into a wide smile before I can even think about playing it cool. "Oh, for real?"
"If you're cool with it?" Jubilee looks up at me through her lashes.
I hesitate for just a second, remembering Katrina's blue fur and yellow eyes, her tail wrapped around my thigh. "I did sleep with Nightcrawler once since you and I..." I confess, rubbing the back of my neck. "I just don't want to keep it from you."
Jubilee shrugs, looking surprisingly unbothered. "I know. It's like you said, we're not dating, right?"
"Yeah," I nod, relieved she's not upset. "I just know some people get nervous about diseases and stuff."
Jubilee bursts out laughing, the sound filling my room as she doubles over. "Jack, mutants can't catch STDs!"
"What about AIDS?" I ask, genuinely confused.
"Heck no," she says, still giggling. "That's a human-only thing. We're built different." She taps her temple with one finger. "But we still catch other things, weirdly enough… I never really thought about it."
"That's... convenient," I say, processing this new information. One more way this world is nothing like mine.
Jubilee's smile turns mischievous as she slides closer to me on the bed. "So? What do you think? Want to give it another go?" Her fingertips trace along my arm, tiny sparks dancing harmlessly across my skin. "I promise not to blow your face off this time."
"Well, when you put it that way, how can I resist?" I laugh, reaching for her. My hands find her waist.
She pulls me in and our lips meet, sending a jolt through my system that has nothing to do with her powers. It hits me suddenly, Jubilee is the only girl I've ever actually kissed. We're both still awkward at this, teeth occasionally clicking, noses bumping, but there's something endearing about how we're both trying so hard to get it right.
When she pulls back, her eyes are bright with excitement, but there's something hesitant there too.
"Jack." She bites her lip, suddenly looking embarrassed. "For me to guarantee I won't accidentally hit you in the face again, we have to... well, we need to do it in a specific way."
"What do you mean?"
Her cheeks flush pink, almost matching her top. "You'll have to take me from behind." She says it quickly, like ripping off a band-aid. "If we're not face-to-face I can't hit you."
"That sounds completely fine to me," I say honestly.
"But you can't tell anyone, okay?" Jubilee adds urgently, gripping my shirt. "It's really embarrassing for a woman to... you know... get fucked like that. People would think I'm weird."
"Of course," I say immediately, reaching up to touch her cheek. "I would never want to embarrass you, Jube. Your secret's safe with me."
Relief washes over her face, and she smiles, leaning in for another kiss. This one's deeper, more confident. Her hands slide under my shirt, fingertips leaving trails of warmth across my skin.
We rush to strip off our clothes, hands fumbling with buttons and zippers. There's this frantic energy between us, like we're racing against an invisible clock. She's pulling off her top while I'm still struggling with my pants, and I catch a glimpse of her beautiful body that makes my breath catch.
"Hurry up," she whispers, already naked and positioning herself on all fours on my bed, looking back at me over her shoulder with those bright eyes.
I nearly trip getting my boxers off, which would definitely kill the mood, but somehow manage to stay upright. She's facing away from me now, her back arched in a way that makes my mouth go dry.
"Come on, come on, put it in," she urges, impatience and desire making her voice crack slightly.
"Alright, alright," I laugh, climbing onto the bed behind her. "Give me a second."
I position myself, gripping her hips with both hands. The moment I push inside her, we both gasp. It's different from last time, better, somehow. Maybe because we've done this before, or maybe because this position feels incredible.
"Oh my god," she breathes, dropping her head down. "Just don't forget to pull out!"
"I know." I start moving slowly at first, trying to find a rhythm that works for both of us. Her body feels amazing around me, hot and tight. Every nerve ending in my body seems to be firing at once.
"Is this okay?" I ask, leaning forward slightly to speak near her ear.
"Faster," she responds, pushing back against me.
I pick up the paceAs Jubilee moans beneath me. God, this feels incredible. My breathing gets heavier, matching the rhythm of our bodies moving together.
Then I blink, and everything changes.
The room around me transforms in an instant. Instead of my bedroom at Xavier's mansion, I'm suddenly in an opulent chamber with a massive four-poster bed. Heavy silk curtains hang from the canopy, billowing slightly in some unseen breeze. The sheets beneath my knees are no longer my standard-issue bedding but crisp white Egyptian cotton.
And the woman beneath me, she's not Jubilee anymore. Her skin is alabaster pale instead of Jubilee's warm tone, her back longer, more elegant. My hands are still gripping hips, still thrusting, but they're not the same hips I was holding seconds ago.
The woman turns her head slowly over her shoulder, platinum blonde hair cascading down her back. Ice-blue eyes lock with mine, filled with wicked triumph.
Emma Frost.
"So this is how little Jubilee likes to take it, hmm?" she purrs, her British accent somehow more pronounced than usual. A condescending laugh escapes her perfect lips. "Such a timid, weak girl. Afraid to even look at you while you're inside her."
My blood runs cold, but my body keeps moving on its own, hips still thrusting forward like they're being controlled by someone else. I try to stop, to pull away, but nothing happens, I'm a passenger in my own body.
"Get out of my head, Emma," I snarl, panic rising in my chest as I realize what's happening. She's hijacked my mind during sex, turned an intimate moment with Jubilee into something far more twisted.
"No." Her voice echoes across the room, bouncing off the walls and reverberating inside my skull. Not just a word but a declaration, a queen's command.
I struggle to regain control, to break free of whatever mental hold she has on me, but it's like trying to swim through concrete. My limbs won't respond; my body continues its mechanical motions while my mind screams in protest.
"Someone like you deserves to be savored," Emma's voice purrs in my mind, her lips curving into that predatory smile I know too well. "I would never resort to being taken like some mutt in heat. I would be on top of you, showing you what you really need."
"That wouldn't work, Emma," I manage to say, still fighting for control of my own body.
Her eyes narrow slightly, studying me with that penetrating gaze that always makes me feel like she's dissecting my soul. "Because you're afraid of women, Jack. Because of your mother.
"I mean, I'm working through it," I mutter defensively, hating how vulnerable I feel.
"I could fix you," she says softly, her mental projection somehow sliding closer to me. "Easily, even."
"You'd just edit my thoughts, right?" I snap back, anger giving me strength to resist her control. "That's just cheating. It's not real growth."
"That's not what I was implying."
A moan escapes my lips as a wave of pleasure crashes through me, more intense than anything I've felt before.
Emma's body begins pushing back against me, the rhythm of her illusion synchronizing with Jubilee's real movements. Her hair swings hypnotically with each thrust.
"Come on, Jack," she purrs, voice dripping with condescension. "Drop this little girl and come be with a real woman. Someone who can actually handle you."
Something protective flares inside me, breaking through her control just enough for me to find my voice. "Don't talk about Jubilee like that. She's kind and genuine."
Emma's face contorts with rage, her perfect features twisting into something inhuman. Blood begins seeping from her eyes like crimson tears, trailing down her alabaster cheeks in thin rivulets. The luxurious bedroom darkens around us, shadows crawling up the walls like living things. Her body grips mine with impossible tightness, a vise-like pressure that's simultaneously excruciating and ecstatic.
"I could enslave you!" she hisses, her voice reverberating with power that makes my teeth vibrate. "Make you my thrall! I'd own you completely, body and mind!"
I feel her telepathic tendrils trying to burrow deeper into my consciousness.
"But then I wouldn't be special to you anymore, right?" I say quietly, meeting her bloody gaze.
Everything freezes. The luxurious room hangs suspended in perfect stillness. The only sensation that remains real is the physical feeling of being inside Jubilee.
Emma appears at my side, not the one beneath me, but a second Emma, dressed in impeccable white. She cups my face between her cool hands, those ice-blue eyes boring into mine without a trace of blood. Her lips press against mine in a kiss that feels like drowning in something beautifully deep and endless.
When she pulls away, her expression is unreadable. "Forget," she whispers, her breath ghosting across my lips.
"Huh?" I blink, momentarily disoriented.
For a second, I could've sworn there was something... something important happening, but it's gone now, like trying to remember a dream that fades the moment you wake up.
"Why did you stop?" Jubilee asks, turning her head to look back at me. Her eyes are bright with excitement. "Keep going!"
I shake my head, trying to clear the strange fog that's settled over my thoughts. "Sorry," I say with a smile, gripping her hips tighter. "I don't know what came over me."