Tell No One What You've Seen
by imp

Tell No One What You've Seen

imp

Summary

Vanessa's mutant gene activated just in time to save her from dying - but then she spent six months being tortured by DMC. Now she's alive, deeply maladjusted, and living in Domino's spare room.

Domino's not exactly happy about it.

Notes

None

Chapter 1

Domino stared at the woman crouched in the far corner of her living room and considered, for the first time in awhile, that her powers might be on the fritz.

"So," she said, trying and failing to think of a conversation starter for the fifth time. "That blood looks great with your outfit."

More silence.

"I was going to shower and head to bed," she tried. "You should probably do the same. I mean, unless you want to sleep in that bustier. No judgment if so. I actually just changed the sheets in the spare bedroom, so you should be good to go."

For a moment, her eyes seemed to glow. "What's it like?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Being lucky." Her voice was low and husky. "I've wondered, since I heard of you."

Since she'd been a DMC asset until a few hours ago, Domino could only guess the kind of stuff she'd heard. "It's fine," she said, as calmly as she knew how. "Let me go get a toothbrush."

She jumped in the air, flipping and landing right in front of Domino. Inches away. She reached out and touched Domino's face.

Warm fingers. Then a prick of cold, and Domino found herself looking at a perfect duplicate of her own body. Lips that weren't hers smiled. Eyes that weren't hers glowed. "Lucky me," Wade's no-longer-dead ex-girlfriend said with Domino's voice.

She disappeared into the spare bedroom. Domino walked to her own room, locked the door, and did her best to ignore the adrenalin screaming through her.

-

Domino spent the morning in the kitchen, flipping through the dossier Xavier had sent her regarding Vanessa Carlysle. She relaxed after the first hour or so; it would be really unlucky if Vanessa happened to wake up as Domino drank her coffee, and the weird feeling in the back of her head was telling her it was fine to stay put for now. So she did. She read through the dossier page by page, taking notes.

It was - well. Disturbing.

Tragic childhood, but then, what mutant didn't have one of those? Tragic adulthood, too. Dead too soon because of Wade underestimating a strike team. There was a lot in here about Wade, detailing a period of suicidality that Domino had only heard parts of. She winced at some of the descriptions, flipping through it quickly to get to Vanessa's resurrection.

Instead, she found something even worse. Two months of slow decay and regrowth. A mutant gene that, if Xavier was to be believed, had stayed dormant almost until she'd died. Wade had cried on her; the gene had woken up just long enough to almost-perfectly copy his healing factor. And then: Six months of time-sliding. Alternate dimensions glimpsed. Torture suspected. Fractured memories. In other words, after being held by DMC in some kind of pocket dimension for six months, experimented on in who knew how many different ways, Vanessa had a brain like Swiss cheese.

And, Domino thought, a killer instinct.

Yesterday, Vanessa had raced into Domino's favorite bookstore with Wade and several handlers hot on her heels. It had been all Domino could manage to restrain her. She'd barely gotten her out before Wade started killing the handlers, and it had been a struggle to keep her sedated long enough for Xavier to do his thing. Fifteen minutes, maybe, and in that time she'd almost buried a knife in Domino's throat three times.

That look in her eyes when Domino had finally gotten cuffs on her...

And now Domino was alone with her, because she'd insisted, because Xavier's presence made Vanessa worse. Because that little feeling in the back of her head told her that she should be. Great. This would all be just fine.

She tossed her dishes across the kitchen, where they landed upright in the sink. She'd need to call backup if she wanted to, say, check in on her startup incubator, or buy groceries, or pretty much live her life at all, so she pulled out her cell phone and dialed the number Xavier had given her.

"Professor Xavier's home for exceptional children, how may I route your call?"

"Hey, Russell. Phone duty, really?"

"Yeah, it's weird, normally they don't let me on it 'cause I like to practice accents, but I guess today Jean was sick, so -"

"That's great." Russell would go on forever if you let him, and normally Domino tried to be sympathetic to that, but today. Well. "I was actually wondering if it was possible for you guys to send a detail to my apartment."

"Oh? Why?"

"Because Copycat's in my guest room, and I'm out of milk."

Long silence. Then: "Holy fucking shit! Copycat! Wade's girl!"

"She's not Wade's girl, what is this, the fifties?"

"We'd both better hope not. But seriously? She's really, seriously, just chillin' like a literal villain in your guest room?"

"For now. But can you guys send someone over? I'd really like -"

"Where's your coffee?"

Domino whirled around to see Vanessa standing in the doorway to her kitchen, looking like herself again. Really like herself. Naked, in fact, and pissed off, going by her expression.

"I'm gonna have to call you back," she told Russell.

"Oh my fuck, is she there? Domino! Knock once if you're in danger! Knock twice if -"

She hung up. "Over there. Should still be some. It's single-origin, from Ecuador." She wasn't sure why she'd said that last bit, except that Vanessa was still naked, staring at Domino like she didn't think anything was wrong.

"Thanks." Vanessa wandered into the kitchen. She was limping a little - she'd fallen hard on her knee, Domino recalled. She glanced down - farther down than Vanessa's incredible and incredibly naked ass, Jesus - to see a massive bruise blooming on her left knee. "You need some ice for that?"

Vanessa finished pouring her coffee and went to sit at the kitchen table. "No," she said, and snagged the dossier.

Shit. "Wait, that's -"

"About me. Isn't it? I don't think someone with your...background...is going to stop me from reading my own file."

The implication there was impossible to ignore. "How do you know about my powers?"

Vanessa quirked her eyebrows. "Did you really think you weren't on the list of people I was supposed to kill?"

It worked as well as dunking her in ice would have. "If you try -"

"You'll talk me to death?" She laughed. It was a deep, throaty sound. "Don't worry. Until one of them finds me, I don't have to do anything they say."

Weird wording. "Okay. Well. I really do need to go to the store."

Vanessa sipped her coffee. "I'll go with you. Oooh, who's this guy?" She tapped a picture.

Not "a" picture: Wade's picture. Domino couldn't hide her surprise. "Um -"

"Kidding. I'd know him anywhere." A fond smile. Well, probably fond. Xavier hadn't been kidding about Vanessa being unhinged. "How's Wade doing?"

"The dossier has that, too."

"It sure does." She went back to reading. If the long descriptions of Wade's attempts to kill himself bothered her, she didn't show it.

Domino wanted to just leave while she was distracted, but instinct pushed her to stay. Fifteen minutes later, Vanessa had finished her coffee and put her mug away. "Well?"

Eyes above the chest. Eyes above the everything. "You'll need to put some clothes on first."

"I burned the ones you locked me in with." Another one of those dangerous smiles. "Guess you'd better lend me some."

They weren't exactly the same build. But she dug out some sweatpants and a t-shirt, bit her tongue when Vanessa tossed aside the bra she'd provided. If she felt like letting everyone know the headlights were on, it really wasn't Domino's business, anyway. "If there are scorch marks on my hardwood, I'm going to need you to pay to repair them."

"Don't worry. I kept it contained." Vanessa raised an eyebrow. "Ready?"

Not even a little. "Stay close to me. Just in case."

"Expecting trouble at the grocery store?"

"I'm just not sure how far my luck extends, these days."

She expected questions right then, but they made it to the produce aisle before Vanessa said, "I really thought DMC was lying with the whole 'luck' thing."

Domino tossed the zucchini in her basket and went to look at the peppers. "Nope."

"Luck's not a superpower."

"You know, you're probably right." Two green peppers, one red. "Since, if it were, I wouldn't be stuck with two of you."

"What?"

Domino turned and headed for the canned foods, ignoring Vanessa's question.

"You know, I could just kill you."

Tomatoes, beans. Both in the basket. "You could certainly try."

"What, and your luck would protect you?"

She closed her eyes briefly. Vanessa didn't know. She had absolutely no psychic powers, she was just a slightly crazy jerk with the same uncanny ability to annoy people that her boyfriend had. Ex-boyfriend. Whatever. "Look, just drop it, okay? Do you like sloppy joes?"

"I like sloppy janes. With mushrooms."

"Ugh. Fine." Domino led them back to the produce aisle.

They got back to her apartment without incident. The usual not-quite-instinct buzzed at the back of her head as Vanessa said, "I'm going to crash. Don't wait up."

"Wasn't gonna," Domino said, grabbing a beer from the fridge.

She rarely got drunk, probably because she hated hangovers; something always came up before that last drink that would've pushed her over the edge. But tonight she felt determined. Vanessa stayed in the guest room, and Domino drank one, two, three pints of the good microbrew stuff, until her head felt fuzzy and she felt a little more - capable - of dealing with what was happening.

It had seemed so simple two years ago. Hell, two months ago, before she'd seen that demented X-Force ad and felt the nudge that meant she should check it out. She'd been planning on going back to NYU like her advisers wanted, finishing out her degree and getting some nice, boring job. Still investing on the side, obviously, but -

Normal people had jobs. They'd definitely made sure she learned that at the orphanage. Normal people had jobs and husbands and kids. They didn't fight crime, they definitely didn't do crime, and they didn't house psychopaths in their spare rooms.

Damn it. She pulled out her phone and called the only number she was reasonably sure would understand her problem.

"Cheryl's B&B, you eat the B, we provide the D."

"Ugh, come on."

"What, too campy?"

"Too long," Domino said. "Wade, I'm - kind of freaking out, over here."

It was a lot to admit. So obviously she admitted it to someone who would pretend he didn't care. Sure enough, Wade gave her a big fake gasp and said, "Oh no, freaking out? Over the love of my life coming back superpowered, from the dead? Wow, sounds super hard for you."

"She's in my guest room, Wade. She drank my coffee this morning. Naked."

"Oh, yeah, she loves that." Wade sounded fonder than Domino'd heard him sound about anything. "She calls it the distraction factor. Wins poker games like you wouldn't believe."

"Actually, I can believe it," Domino said, trying and failing not to think about the way Vanessa's tits had gently swayed as she'd poured herself coffee. "But - can the X-Men take her? Or anyone else? I asked for a detail, but none showed up."

"Xavier shot the detail down. And we're working on the rest." A pause. "Well, Cable's working on it. I think it'll be good for Ness if you guys are roomies."

Jesus Christ. "Seriously?"

"I don't know, I mean, I don't want her to be alone, and you've got that whole 'sexy loner' vibe going. Also, if I say that it makes me seem responsible, and not like I'm avoiding all my problems. So you can see the dilemma, here."

Domino bit back a groan. "Fine. Any advice for if she turns into me again?"

"Two words: girl on girl."

"That's three, dumbass," Domino said, and hung up. She loved Wade. But he was kind of like her long-list white brother, in the sense that she sometimes wanted to lock him in a broom closet and leave him to suffocate to death.

They hadn't had very good models of family relationships at the orphanage.

She had plenty of time to think of next steps while Vanessa slept (or paced, or lit things on fire. It was really, really quiet on the other side of the door, and if Domino's luck held, it would stay that way). But the problem was, she couldn't think of anything. The whole solution was fucked, and Domino had a ton of money and all the resources that came with it, but she didn't actually know of anyone that could help her with a shiny new possibly-psychopathic mutant. Well, except Xavier, but Domino would bet her entire Vanguard balance that Vanessa wasn't willing to be shipped off to the home for gifted youngsters.

God, what a clusterfuck.

Eventually, the need to sleep overruled her panic impulse. Not so shockingly, she dreamed of the Home: the electroshock therapy, the beatings, the other abuse that'd come late at night. She was wrenchingly aware that they were nightmares until she wasn't, until they felt real. Only then did she wake up, choking off a scream, soaked in sweat.

Then she screamed for real, because two glowing eyes were watching her from the far corner.

"You were talking," Vanessa said.

"Oh, great. Please feel free to never tell me what I was saying."

"None of it was interesting, anyway." She shifted a little, eyes still on Domino. Domino realized she wasn't sitting, but was actually crouching, her fingers and toes both digging into the cheap folding chair. "I could kill you."

'Not unless I wanted you to' felt too much like tempting fate. "Yeah, well," Domino said after a moment. "So could french fries, but they taste really good. So."

More staring. Vanessa hopped out of the chair, a single fluid movement that sent a chill down Domino's spine. She crept forward until she stood over Domino, and then she leaned down, very close.

She smelled like cinnamon. Her hair fell on either side of Domino. Her eyes were so bright.

"Be more careful, Neena," she whispered. Her lips didn't brush Domino's. But they almost did, a not-touch that hit her spine like a live wire.

And then, as Domino fought her stupid libido down, she left.

"Fuck," Domino told the ceiling. "Fuck."

-

She saw Wade at Sister Margaret's the next day.

"You're an asshole," she told him, sitting down across from him.

"Oh, hi, how are you? I'm good. You know, really having trouble with my ex-wife being brought back from the dead, and dealing with knowing we're not in the same place but also wanting to be around her because I love her more than life itself, which, bee tee dubs, I can't escape, but that's all just gravy, really. Let's talk about you instead." Wade propped a hand on his chin and gave Domino googly eyes. "How you doing, girlfriend?"

"All of that's super sad, but at least you're not living with your ex-wife. I think being dead made her a sociopath. Or it was the kidnapping." Either was a fair reason to go crazy, but Domino didn't want to be the person dealing with it on the front lines.

"Vanessa's heart is as soft as a box of kittens."

"And has as many claws?"

Wade gave a little sob-sigh, burying his head in his arms. "I miss her so much."

She wished he hung around here without the mask. It would've made judging his mood a lot simpler. "Give her a couple weeks. She still cares about, you, she's just -"

"A sociopath, I know, thank you. So you said."

"Going through it, I was going to say," Domino said. "You're not as good at finishing other people's sentences as you think."

"And you're not as good at poker as you think. Even Stevens." Wade raised his head. "So did you kiss her?"

"What? For fuck's sake."

"I'm just saying! Not that I'd want to watch, obviously I respect women way too much for that -"

"Oh, yeah, obviously."

"- but I remember it being a very, very good way to get Ness distracted from her current obsession. Most of those obsessions weren't murder, but hey, people change, right?"

Domino shook her head. "I'm not taking advice from you. On, like, anything."

"Okay, but if you do, remember: anything can be a dildo if you try hard and believe in yourself."

It did make her feel a little better to smack him, at least. She was almost in a good mood when she got home and saw Wade sitting on her couch.

Only of course it wasn't Wade. "Practicing?" she said.

"I didn't have these powers the last time I touched him." Vanessa stared at the backs of her hands as though they were fascinating. In a way, they were; his skin was smooth, his face not so moldy. This was what he'd looked like before whatever-the-fuck happened, one assumed. "I wonder how I can make his form."

"Bun in the oven?"

"Very funny. He wouldn't touch me like this."

Domino wasn't so sure. Well, okay, no; she was absolutely positive, in fact, that Vanessa was wrong. But she had her own problems and none of them involved mediating Vanessa and Wade's fucked-up relationship. "Whatever. Look, I know you have a lot of drama going on, but at some point the X-Men are going to want to talk to you."

"Why do they care?"

"Well, you're a mutant. You were brought back from the dead."

Vanessa, still wearing old-Wade's body, tilted her head. "Why don't you care?"

"I do. But I don't have any kind of authority, and Xavier does, kind of."

"And, what, you're his messenger?"

She shrugged. "When he asks nicely."

"Pathetic."

"Nah. I just know a good deal when I see one." Having allies was vital for survival, especially with organizations like DMC thriving. She'd always been pretty good at making friends, and Xavier was a powerful friend to have. Plus, back at the orphanage -

No. She wasn't going to go there.

"Anyway. I'm meeting with Cable tomorrow to see about a job in Maine. You could come if you want."

"What the fuck's in Maine?"

"A smuggler who loves his summer house." Vanessa didn't say anything. "Let me know. I'm gonna crash."

She closed her bedroom door behind her and thought about locking it, for a second, like a builder basic doorknob lock would somehow keep Vanessa out if she really wanted in.

She didn't. Domino slept alone, ate her breakfast alone, went to see Cable alone.

"You look awful," Cable said when she sat down across from him at the library.

"So you're saying we're twinsies?"

He grunted. "Copycat?"

"Maine first."

"I need intel."

That was a lie. If he needed intel for himself, he'd gather it. Or he'd try, and her luck would put every futuristic surveillance device on the fritz; but he hadn't tried, and she knew it. She waited in silence.

"Jesus. Fine. Wade needs intel."

"That's more like it. I'm not going to be your go-between. Or a shrink."

"Copycat's dangerous, and Wade's dangerous about her. Come on, Dom. Work with me, would you?"

Her luck gave her a little push. She decided to cooperate. "Vanessa is fine. Twitchy, hostile, but fine. Nothing's changed there, nothing's likely to change. I told Wade already. She's seriously traumatized and -"

"Came back wrong?"

"Or something," Domino said. "I don't really have a handle on the science behind it."

"You'll tell me if anything changes?"

"Since you asked so nicely, sure."

Cable rolled his eyes. "Do you get off on all this cloak and dagger shit?"

"We're in a library. You're wearing a train conductor's cap." He looked like someone's grandpa, grey hair and all. "Do you?"

He hunched his shoulders. "So. Maine."

"Maine."

They discussed logistics for awhile, but it was a simple job and they already worked well together, so there was only so much to go over. After he gave her his flight number, he said, "I'm trying to keep us away from all that DMC shit for now."

"Us?"

"Me. And Wade."

Huh. "They'll be hurting, missing Vanessa. They'll come after us."

"He'll probably try to get them to lock one of those collars on him again, if his girlfriend's a whole different person."

"And, what, you'll protect him?"

Cable shrugged.

"Ooookay," Domino said. "Well, anyway, if I see any catsuit-clad anti-mutant types hanging around, I'll let you know."

He nodded and stood. "See you at the airport."

She should go home and pack. As she thought about it, her eyes strayed to the nonfiction section. It probably wouldn't hurt to have some reading material on the flight.

As soon as she ducked into the stacks, someone grabbed her and pinned her against a shelf. She knew who it was before they moved into her vision; seeing Vanessa's sneering face was just icing on the weird-luck cake. "What are you doing here?"

"Eavesdropping." Her grip tightened. "You're going to go kill someone."

"You can't tell me you have a problem with that. Not with your dating history."

"We're not engaged. Or married. Or fucking. Or -"

"I get the picture." And she didn't have to rub it in. Though, that implied Domino would be down if it was on offer, which wasn't true, really. Couldn't be true.

"My problem isn't with you killing someone," Vanessa said. "My problem is that you and the cyborg seem to be comfortable allowing DMC to continue to exist."

"Well, they are a huge governmental agency with, apparently, the power to alter the time stream. Hence, you know." Domino waved a hand at Vanessa. "And Cable's powerful, but he's one person, and I try to keep my head down. The luckiest day of all is when I don't need my luck. So."

"So you're a coward and so's your cyborg boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"But you are a coward."

Sure, let Vanessa believe that. It was better than doing a quick review of sixteen years of straight-up torture. "Whatever you want to believe. Hey, do you know where they shelve the true crime?"

"364.1523. Going to read about some tortured kids? DMC's got a whole department for that, you know."

Domino closed her eyes for a second, counted to ten, opened them again. Vanessa still stood there, inches from her, hot and crazy and a fucking asshole.

An asshole who was living in her house, who she'd promised to keep track of, who by definition she couldn't tell to fuck off.

"It's none of your business," she finally said, "but yeah, I know DMC has a department for that. I have to keep it together before I do anything else, and that means not doing stupid shit that will get me killed. You might want to consider taking a page from my book. You're a hot mess right now." She leaned forward, plucking a book from over Vanessa's shoulder even as Vanessa shied away from her.

"Also, if you trash my apartment while I'm gone, I'll kill you," Domino said, and went to check her book out.

-

"Platypuses, huh," Cable said, eying her airport read with mistrust.

"Yeah, I'm really into, uh, biology." And randomly picking books during weird, emotional panic. "Don't worry, the library's super underfunded, so there's no way this bar code doubles as a tracking device."

For some reason, that made him scowl. "I mean, I could have someone check it too, if you don't believe me."

"Plentiful food, breathable air, more capital than sense and you people still underfund the places where you can learn anything. Everything." He shook his head. "My family would kill for a single shelf of library books, and this society is trying to starve them out of existence. Disgusting."

"Right. Well, I vote Democrat, so."

She watched in amusement as he turned red. "Let's go - find a car."

They found a car, then they found the target and killed him. The whole thing only took a day, and two hours of that were devoted to waiting for a moose to be removed from the highway. All in all, it was easy money and shouldn't have felt like a letdown; why, then, was she in such a terrible mood as they settled in to wait for their flight back home?

"You're worried about living with Wade's girlfriend."

"I don't know why you keep calling her that. And no, I'm not." Except he was right, damn those psychic superpowers. "She's just a handful."

A hint of a smirk: "I bet."

"Hey, jackass."

"What? It's all over your mind. I wouldn't have thought you'd have to worry about getting lucky, personally."

"Oh my God. We are not having this conversation."

Cable snorted, but fell blessedly silent.

Their flight was delay-free, and Domino was upgraded to business class, like always. She got home quickly, thanks to a Lyft coupon that popped up on her phone as she exited the gate.

And then there was Vanessa, sitting naked on the kitchen counter, staring at her. Clearly waiting.

"Cable text you, or something?"

"Cable texted Wade, who texted me." Vanessa hopped off the counter. "Welcome home, sweetie. I didn't make dinner."

"Yeah, well, maybe a little less bare-ass action on my quartz, please." Domino dropped her duffel. "I'm tired. I was going to order pizza." Half true, at least. The instant she'd seen Vanessa's psycho stare, she'd suddenly become exhausted.

"But I've been cooped up in here forever." Vanessa pouted. "I thought we could go out."

"It was barely forty-eight hours, I did actually give you a key, and my apartment's twenty-six hundred square feet, so -"

The breath just - left her, as Vanessa shimmered and shifted, turning into a guy with perfect brown skin and ridiculous, movie star eyes. "Come on, babe," the man who was actually Vanessa said. "Let's just go to that Greek place down the street, we'll have a nice time."

She was so crazy. So, so crazy, maybe worse than Wade, who at least had more practice managing it. And the worst part was, looking at Vanessa's borrowed body, all Domino could think was that she'd rather go out - to a Greek place, to anywhere - with Vanessa. Actual Vanessa. Wade's Vanessa.

Damn it.

"Fine," she said. "God, you're a pain in my ass."

And it was true, it really was. They got gyros and their whole meal was comped because Domino found a solid gold ring in her fries. They even got to keep the ring, but Vanessa almost ruined it by trying to fight a guy in the parking lot for catcalling Domino.

"I fucking hate those pieces of shit," Vanessa said, cracking her borrowed knuckles and glaring at the guy as he fled.

"Seriously, were you always this high-strung?"

"I'm not high-strung."

"You really are. It's like the first X-Force mission, over and over again."

They walked a block before Vanessa said, "I was dead during that."

"Everyone died because your boyfriend doesn't believe in wind advisories."

"He's not my boyfriend." Vanessa laughed, a weird, bitter noise. "He was going to be my husband. He's not anything anymore."

Which was ridiculous. "You're not that different."

"You've been telling everyone you talk to that I'm crazy."

"He went crazy and it was just part of your epic love story." Domino had been treated to many, many, many tearful recitations of that love story, in fact. "If you can't go crazy too, that's just sexist."

"Wade would take me back in a heartbeat," Vanessa said flatly. "But I'm not the same person, and I know it. There's - things inside me. Messed-up thoughts, anger. I look at him and I feel - it's like looking at your high school yearbook, you know?"

The orphanage hadn't given out yearbooks. "Sure."

"I'm not that person anymore. I'm just not. Something...broke."

The quality of the silence changed. Domino glanced over to see Vanessa back in her normal body, wearing the shrunken-down version of the borrowed body's clothes. Good to know she just chose to be naked half the time.

Which, wow, not the point of all of this, at all. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault."

"It's an expression of sympathy. Dipshit."

Vanessa snorted. "That's more like it."

Some insane impulse compelled her to say, "I didn't get a yearbook. I grew up in an orphanage. Russell's orphanage, actually."

Vanessa wrinkled her nose. "The torturephanage?"

"Not a very catchy name. But yeah."

"Better than so and so's home for pedophiles." A pause. "Sorry, that was insensitive."

"Nah, it's fine."

And it was, somehow. They walked back to the house in silence, and stood in the living room for a second like it really had been a date. Vanessa had only called it that to be a dick, and Domino knew it. But she looked at Vanessa back in her normal body, standing way too close for comfort, and for a second she thought about what it would be like to pull her in, to take all that fight to bed with her.

No. Domino had made her choices awhile ago, and even wandering into Wade's supergroup stuff didn't change that. She wasn't going to get involved any more than she already had. The instinct she felt right now wasn't her luck, it was her libido, and she was not going to listen to it.

"Goodnight," she said. Christ, they'd been staring at each other for whole minutes, and Vanessa hadn't even said anything.

She didn't need to. She looked Domino up and down with a speaking glance, pinned her in place with a heavy gaze, and said, "Goodnight," in a voice that told Domino exactly what she'd be doing as soon as she got into bed.

God damn it. Domino practically ran to her own bedroom. She got ready for bed, every single movement resisting the urge to cross the hall and see if Vanessa was actually up for it. She lay in bed and tried and failed to sleep. She stared at the ceiling and thought of the heavy sway of Vanessa's breasts, the way she'd looked in the light from the street, the curve of her ass and that little smirk she got when she caught Domino looking. God fucking damn it.

-

"Hey, did you ever see the Freaky Friday remake with Jamie Lynn Curtis and Lindsay Lohan? I think they were dating."

Whiskey made it hard to focus, but luckily Wade's mask didn't have very delicate features. Domino squinted at him. "What?"

"We're not dating, though."

"Excuse me?"

"You and me, we're not dating."

"They weren't dating in Freaky Friday. They were related. She was her mom."

"Well, you're not my mom, either. Even if you're as drunk as she was."

Domino closed her eyes. God, she should've stayed short on Lehman Brothers. Sure, she was a millionaire and technically didn't have to be here at all, but a few hundred million more -

"Role reversal," Wade said, killing her fantasies of a more peaceful life. "You're drunk and sad, and I'm sober and happy."

She finished off her drink and motioned for another. "Liar."

"No, swearsies." He hopped up on the bar stool next to her. "Well, I'm happier than you, anyway."

"Your girlfriend's a pain in the ass to care about."

"Yeah, we were kind of two peas in a pod that way. Wait a second." Wade gasped, putting his hands to his cheeks like the Home Alone kid. "You're in love with Vanessa!"

"Oh my God." She couldn't help but laugh. "No. Absolutely not. I just have an inconvenient -"

"Throbbing ladyboner!"

"Crush. Just a crush. Thassit." Damn it, being drunk enough to slur but not drunk enough not to notice it was the worst kind. Where was her damn drink?

Oh. By her elbow. The brown reminded her of Vanessa's eyes right before she shifted. They got bright and scary-looking, just for a second.

"Jesus," Cable muttered behind Wade.

"Don't tune in if you don't like the programming," Domino said.

"Hey, Dom, whiskey won't solve your feelings. A therapist told me that." Wade put a hand on hers. "It's never too late to start the twelve steps."

"Yeah, that's not happening," Domino said, and knocked the drink back all at once.

One thing led to another led to Whitney Houston singalongs and Domino getting carried home by three members of a local women's rugby team. She still felt generally bummed, but a hell of a lot less depressed than she'd been at the start of the night, and that feeling lasted exactly long enough for her to forget that she wouldn't be alone when she stumbled into her apartment.

"It's late," Vanessa said from the couch.

Domino stared at her and felt the back of her neck tingle. Booze or luck? It probably should've been easier to work out. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

"You've been drinking."

"Sister Margaret's gets wild sometimes." She hung her keys up - nope, they fell to the floor. Oops. "Depth perception, hmmm," she said, swaying a little to see if that helped it.

It didn't. It only made the room swim.

"Right. Okay, then, let's get you to bed." Vanessa appeared under her arm, supporting her, guiding her into her bedroom. Lucky. She was so fucking lucky to have Vanessa here, pulling her jacket off, shoving her onto her mattress, flopping blankets on her. Ha! Lucky, lucky, lucky. But she wasn't going to get lucky, of course.

"You know you're drooling, right?" Strong arms hauled her half upright again, and Vanessa handed her a glass of water. "Drink that. I won't leave until you do."

"You don't have to leave," Domino said. "Your skin is soft." She drank the water. Vanessa got up and refilled it and she drank that too, then burped. "And your eyes are pretty."

"You're trashed, and you'll regret this in the morning."

She would! Vanessa was right, she really really would. But that didn't make Vanessa's skin less soft, or her eyes less pretty.

It did make Domino embarrassingly pliant, though. She let Vanessa push her back into the soft bed, tucking the blankets up around her chin. It was ridiculous, but - sweet, Domino thought, watching as Vanessa turned her light off and softly shut the door behind her.

Unfortunately, 'sweet' didn't stop the nightmares.

She had been one of the first prisoners. DCFS sent her there only the second year it had been open. They'd been revising their methods, then. The dream dropped her in middle of an experiment, pain shooting down all four of her limbs. But because it was a dream, there was her case worker, watching the torment. Domino had long since forgotten the woman's name, but in the dream her face was crystal clear. She took notes on a clipboard and said, "Now, Neena, you should have been honest with me. We'll have to start all over again. Why don't you let these good men help you?"

And then the beatings started, and there was no help for her then.

She woke up with a gasp, near-silent, years of practice keeping her from screaming. There was a hand on her shoulder - but before she could reach out and strike, Vanessa caught her wrists in a bone-crushing grip and leaned forward until all Domino could see was her.

"Shhh," she said. "You were talking. Well, yelling."

"It's dangerous to wake me up during a nightmare."

"Yeah, I saw Saving Private Ryan too, don't worry." Vanessa's eyes drifted over her face, cataloging who-knows-what. This close, Domino could smell her minty fresh breath and flowery perfume.

It was good. Better than it should have been. "You can get off me now."

Her stomach shouldn't have flipped over at Vanessa's smirk. "Sure you won't attack me?"

"You've made it obvious you could fight me off even if I did."

"Unless you use your luck."

And because the nightmare was still raw, because half of Domino's brain was stuck fifteen years ago, scared out of her fucking mind and wondering how she could possibly have luck superpowers when she couldn't even save herself from being hurt, she said, "Fuck you."

Vanessa didn't flinch back, but she went very still, like it was taking all her attention to control her reaction. She leaned back, releasing Domino's wrists and then climbing off her lap, and Domino -

Ached. Fucking ached, realizing all at once just how badly she wanted that to have gone another way.

But just like in her nightmare, her luck was nowhere to be found. Vanessa let herself out of Domino's room, closing her door with a quiet click.

Chapter 2

Summary

Deals are struck and bad decisions are made.

Domino didn't see Vanessa again for days, and in a way she was glad. She had other shit to do. She collected her half of the fee for the Maine job, rebalanced her portfolio, went to a gymnastics class, won a scratch-off worth 150k, and accidentally guest starred on a Shonda show. It was a good week. She had that feeling again, the back-of-the-mind nudge that meant things were going well for her.

So coming home to a dead guy on the floor, exactly six days after she'd last spoken to Vanessa, was - well. Not ideal.

Judging by the way his pants were down around his knees, she'd killed him immediately after seducing him. Or maybe before, but Vanessa wasn't that crazy. Probably.

It took her embarrassingly long to see the DMC badge leaning against his thigh. "Motherfucker."

"I don't like waiting for people to figure their shit out," Vanessa said in a low, tight voice. "I waited for Wade and it sucked, and I was in love with him. I won't wait for you that long."

She already knew the answer, but she had to ask. "Waiting for me for what, exactly?"

"You said you don't like to get involved."

"I said I have to take care of my own shit first. It's a whole concept in therapy, which by the way, you -"

"I cloned his hard drive," Vanessa said. "They're ramping up operations. They have money and they're taking kids now, they're not waiting for places like your orphanage to fill up."

"It wasn't my orphanage."

"I'm taking on DMC," Vanessa said. "There's no way they got this much money without some kind of illegal activity. I'm going to break into their headquarters and steal all the information I can carry out with me. And if you don't help me, I'll get in and out the way they taught me."

The silence stretched on for what felt like forever. "I don't know what they taught you," Domino finally said.

Vanessa huffed out a pissy breath. "Murder. What else?"

It was, admittedly, pretty predictable. And weirdly familiar. She'd wondered enough at why her luck pushed her towards Wade; now she had to wonder again with Vanessa. Domino's life had been so calm before she'd made friends with unstable, homicidal, weirdly hot late-blooming mutants. "You know I've killed people too, right?"

"I know it's not your go-to," Vanessa said. "And I'm pretty sure you could get us in and out of a single highly secured building on the strength of charisma and flashing some cleavage. But what do I know? Not much. Except exactly what angle to hold a knife at when I'm slipping it between a man's ribs."

"Oh my God, okay, I get it." She shook her head. "Fine. I'll help you. Just - what are we going to do about the body?"

It wasn't hot, the way Vanessa looked her up and down and smiled, her eyes going bright with - what, bloodlust? Who knows. It wasn't hot, it wasn't, but Domino felt a tingle down her spine anyway as Vanessa said, "Don't worry, baby. I know a guy."

-

The guy was Wade. X-Force, Domino thought, was a mistake.

-

When the blood was gone and it didn't smell like dead douche in the living room anymore, Domino sat down in her armchair and opened her laptop. "Let's talk planning."

"What are you going to do, make a spreadsheet about it?"

"Hey, you said you wanted my help. If you're having second thoughts about my methods -"

"Touchy." Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Fine, spreadsheets it is. Tell me what you think we should do."

Domino stared at her and found her mind had gone blank. Absolutely no tingling feeling was there to push her along. Shit, maybe this really was a bad idea.

"Or, I'll tell you how I'd do it. DMCHQ is in Virginia, just outside Springfield. Most of their facilities are underground. It's hard to sneak in because there's nothing around, except for trees and lots of cameras. And of course, given the area, cameras can trace your every move for days." Vanessa shrugged. "I'd get myself captured again, keep a few weapons concealed, and fight my way out, getting the information first."

"Sounds like a plan with a high chance of failure."

"Guess it does. It's almost like I'd need to be really, really lucky to survive all that." Vanessa blinked at her in fake innocence.

Ugh. It shouldn't have been hot. No - scratch that. It wasn't hot, Domino told herself firmly. But she got Vanessa's point all the same. "We can talk about how to get in. That's one issue. The other issue is how to get the information. Even assuming it's all on computers, they might not be networked. They'll definitely be locked down. Do you think we'll be shoving hard drives in a duffel bag, or...?"

"Hadn't thought that far. You should add it to your spreadsheet."

She was taking notes, damn it, not using a spreadsheet. But actually...

She opened up Excel, still glaring at Vanessa, and started keeping track of all the unknowns.

"We could really use some help with this," she said after they'd made a preliminary list of unknowns and potential challenges that, taken together, amounted to 'nearly everything'.

"Do you want to call your cyborg?"

"Like I said: not my cyborg."

"I think you guys have chemistry."

"I think you have a personality disorder, so I guess we're even."

"The fact remains that we need help," Vanessa said. "Unless you're about to get really, really lucky, and have a private army swear fealty to you, or something."

She meant it as a flippant joke, a thing that was too impossible to even semi-seriously consider. She couldn't possibly know that the possibility had haunted Domino - not of a private army specifically, but being able to compel loyalty, topple governments. Domino could do it, she was pretty sure, if she wanted to. Essex House had been pretty sure too.

She'd been silent for too long: Vanessa knew something was up. "The X-Men probably wouldn't help us."

"Not even Wade's?"

"X-Force? It's kind of a joke."

Vanessa cocked her head. "The Wade I knew wouldn't joke about that kind of thing."

"The Wade you knew tried to kill himself a hundred times. Maybe he's changed."

"Not that much. Who's on X-Force? You, Colossus, Cable...?"

"Two or three teenagers, depending, and Dopinder, for now. Not exactly a first-class strike force."

"What does your luck tell you?"

It was on the tip of Domino's tongue to tell Vanessa to fuck off, that her luck had no opinions on this or anything else. But then she felt a nudge, stronger and more distinct than anything since she'd seen the ad for X-Force. Suddenly, she knew. "I should go to the mansion and see who I can get to help me. You should do recon. We have a bunch of unanswered questions, and DMC has the answers."

"You really think I can just slip in and out, huh? What would I need you for, then?"

"The perimeters won't be tightly guarded and you know it," Domino said. "That's completely different from stealing several terabytes of data. Figure out who goes in an out, what their security protocols are, and that kind of thing."

For a moment, she thought Vanessa was going to refuse to do it just to be contrary. The steely look she gave her certainly seemed to imply that she was pissed, or thought Domino was disposable. But then she smiled, a slow curve of lips, eyes crinkling. It was a beautiful smile. She looked happy.

"You get to pick who I kill next," Vanessa said.

Right. A happy Vanessa was a bloodthirsty Vanessa. Domino ignored the thrill that gave her, the itch of ill-gotten power. "Thanks," she said. "Let's get to work. We don't exactly have time to waste."

She ignored the way Vanessa brushed past her, two fingers on her hip, warm breath against her neck. Vanessa didn't mean anything by it; this was all part of the game.

By the time she got to Westchester, she almost believed it.

-

Entering the X-Mansion felt a little like walking into a carnival sideshow interpretation of her own childhood. Essex House had also been covered in old-money furnishings, serious busts of serious white men, and lots of heavy wood paneling. But here, the kids Domino passed looked happy, relaxed. No one flinched away from her in fear. She heard no screams or ominous humming of medical equipment.

It was, in short, a home. Domino told herself she was glad for the kids, and buried her furious resentment as deep as it would go.

It sparked to the surface when Colossus said, "No."

"You don't even know what I'm gonna ask."

"The Professor informed me of such. The answer is no."

"Oh, right, the Professor. Where is he, exactly? The man's more elusive than good pizza in Kansas."

Colossus shook his head. "You will not sway us. Vanessa should stay home, go to therapy. Attempting to exact revenge benefits no one."

"I mean, arguably it benefits the kids who are going to be kidnapped and tortured. Like, pretty sure not having that happen is a benefit. Not that I'd know."

"I, too, was experimented upon. Extensively. But to kill draws attention, Domino, which we cannot afford."

Domino looked to his left, then to his right, then leaned forward and craned her neck around him.

He sighed. "What."

"Oh, nothing. Just looking for where you stashed your balls. Or the script to this little talk."

Colossus sighed. "Wade is a bad influence."

"Well, don't worry, I barely hang out with him." She crossed her arms and did her best to glare. Her senses were lighting up - she was in the right place - but she felt at a loss with regards to what exactly she should be saying. "Look, Vanessa got me to do this, okay? She told me -"

Oooh, no. Nope, her instincts threw up a huge stop sign right before she recounted Vanessa's murder/blackmail. "It doesn't matter what she told me, actually. We need help, you guys help people, isn't this kind of meant to be?"

"That help cannot involve endangering the school, Domino." For a moment, Colossus sounded actually sorry. Not a mouthpiece of a rich dude with a savior complex, but like an actual person. "I wish you luck. But, we cannot be involved."

And that was that. She let herself out and decided to walk it for awhile, knowing she'd happen across a train station or a car with keys still running when she decided she needed it. And, damn it, that was half the problem. Vanessa had a big mission that Domino agreed with, but didn't want to be part of; thinking of how dangerous it all was, and what DMC would do if they were caught, made her want to scream. She'd vanquished the ghosts of Essex House from her mind - well, her waking mind - years ago, and it had been paying dividends. Literal dividends, in fact. She didn't want to think about what might happen if she destroyed her own hard-won, carefully-constructed peace.

But Russell hadn't deserved to be in the Ice Box, and Vanessa hadn't deserved to be tortured, and Wade hadn't deserved to be turned into a moldy avocado. Fucking...damn it, damn it, damn it, she thought as she walked down the road.

For a moment she thought the glint up ahead was a lighter. As she got closer, she realized it was a USB stick. Despite the fact that it lay on the side of the road, it looked brand new.

She picked it up and kept walking. After twenty minutes, she saw Alexander Skaarsgard in a corn field, fixing up his vintage plane. One exciting plane ride later, she was home.

She knew better than to just plug the USB stick into her laptop. She called Wade.

"It's my lucky day! What's up, Dom? Vanessa sexiled you? Oooh, are you being held for ransom?"

"Of course not. I was just wondering if you knew where I could find Cable. Dude doesn't have a cell phone, but I have a mysterious thumb drive I need someone to analyze."

"We could just give to to Weasel, you know. He has the physique of a super-hacker."

"That can be a backup plan, but do you know where Cable is?"

"Hmmm. Cable's pretty special, and you sound like you really need to talk to him. How much can you pay for the info?"

"For fuck's sake," she heard in the background, and then static and indignant yelps filled the phone. A few seconds later, Cable said, "Where'd you find a mysterious thumb drive?"

"I'm surprised you know what a thumb drive is."

"I looked it up while Wade was trying to extort you." He fell silent, and Domino made a face at the phone. She wasn't even opposed to explaining, but she hated how well Cable could deploy speaking silences.

"I'll come over," she said. "I don't want to try explaining on the phone." Where people can eavesdrop was left unsaid, but judging by the way Cable grunted assent, he understood.

When she showed up at Wade's, she found Cable in pajama bottoms and a tight undershirt. The couch, she noticed, didn't show any signs he'd been sleeping on it.

So, so not her business. "Here you go," she said, tossing him the thumb drive.

"Soooo," Wade said, handing her a beer. "Are you and Ness suffering Sapphics yet?"

"Dude, get a hobby."

"I'm just saying! She called me the other day and wanted to know what kind of booze you like."

"Probably just my luck working overtime to get me free liquor."

"But it hasn't worked overtime to get you free puss-"

"It's a codebreaking algorithm," Cable said loudly.

Domino blinked. "Wait, what?"

He pulled his metal hand away from the USB stick. The glow in his mechanical eye faded as he focused on Domino. "It's built to get you past any authentication or authorization barrier. Computer login, password on a website, government firewall, whatever. Plug it in and it'll break the code."

"Okay, I'm not exactly a Geek Squad member, but isn't that impossible?"

Cable shrugged. "I'm telling you what it does, not how it was made."

Right. Okay. Well, then. "That's fortunate, I guess. We'll need an awful lot of help if we're actually going to do this thing."

"What thing?" Cable said, at the same time Wade said, "Password-protected sex? Is that like a condom for lesbians?"

"Fuck off," Domino told Wade, then explained the whole breaking-into-DMC thing.

"Holy fucking shitballs," Wade said when she was done. "That's insane! You're going to die!"

Cable gave her a flat, unimpressed look. "Luck and shapeshifting won't be enough to get you out alive."

"I know. I tried to get Colossus to help us out, but -"

"That oversized Boy Scout wouldn't lead a mission to liberate a Hot Pocket from the gas station freezer, much less actual kids," Wade said. He sounded more bitter than Domino had ever heard him.

"That's unfair," Cable said. "He helped with Russell."

"No, X-Force helped with Russell. Colossus was there in his capacity as a loyal X-Force member - gasp! Cable! You're a genius!"

Domino bit back a laugh. Cable smiled, barely, watching with lazy fondness as Wade ran off to summon the X-Force. She could wait to tell him they weren't actually going to be doing the heist for weeks.

-

All in all, she was feeling pretty good when she got back to her apartment. Maybe that was an excuse; maybe she never had a chance, would've always been caught out by Emma Frost sitting in her living room, drinking one of her sparkling waters, watching Vanessa with not-quite hostile eyes.

Maybe.

"Hey, Vanessa," she said, not taking her eyes off the incredibly powerful psychic picking at a loose thread on her antique French fainting chaise. "What the fuck is going on here?"

"Look who I found working at DMC HQ."

"Yeah. I'm looking." She didn't dare stop. "How - you know who this is, right?"

"You're not the only one with access to fancy x-dossiers, Dom."

Which was the snottiest possible way she could've said yes. "Then why is she in our living room?"

"She has her own reasons for being here." Emma Frost - Domino really, truly could not think of her as anything but her full name - stood, smirking at both of them. She was incredibly tall, unbelievably hot, and fucking terrifying.

"She has an office down at DMC," Vanessa said. She examined her nails like she was telling Domino about the gross person in the 7/11 checkout line. "Being annoyingly...good?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Emma - Frost - fuck, what could Domino even call her? - said. "DMC doesn't further my goals any more than Xavier's school of do-gooders does. You found me at DMC looking out for my own interests."

"Right." The itch at the back of Domino's neck wanted her to say - "But, what if you stopped lying and told us why you were really there?"

Emma's smile faltered, just for a second. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Domino crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame, doing her best to look like her heart wasn't pounding out of her chest. "You're not telling the truth, but you're here, which means there's something you need from us. Tell us what you were doing there, for real, and maybe we'll be able to help you."

"When I've needed help in my life, I've conscripted henchmen," Emma said through clenched teeth. "Not jumped-up little also-ran mutants whose powers -"

Vanessa snorted.

"Excuse me?"

"Also-ran? Domino? You've gotta be kidding." And for a second there, watching Vanessa smirk, Domino's head spun. It wasn't much use living across town from Wade if she was going to keep his weird sexy twin in her spare bedroom. "You haven't seen her in the field."

"I have, actually," Emma said, "but both of you together can't even touch me, so -"

"Sure, that's why you're here," Domino said, entirely without giving herself permission. "Because you don't need us. Now that we've established that, tell me why you were embedded with DMC."

A freezing cold, brittle silence took over the apartment. Domino half wanted to back down, but she couldn't - not in front of Emma Frost, and especially not with Vanessa glaring at them both.

"Fine. If you must know: they have something I want. Some kind of tool they're using to hide mutants. They can create pocket dimensions -"

"And torture us in them." Vanessa's smile was a cruel, awful thing. "Got some muties you want to torture, Emma?"

"Don't be obtuse, it's nothing like that. Tech like that would help us hide as easily as it helped them hurt us, and you know it."

"Before we re-litigate a poorly veiled metaphor for the concept of nuclear deterrence," Domino said, "I think we can all agree that having a super powerful mutant on our side is a good thing, right, Vanessa?"

"She wouldn't still be here if I disagreed."

She decided not to ask how Vanessa thought she'd make Emma Frost leave, if she didn't want to. "Wonderful. Emma, do we have a way to contact you?"

They swapped burner numbers and veiled threats, and then Emma saw herself out. As soon as Domino's heavy wood door closed, Vanessa snapped, "If she'd gutted you like a fish it would be no less than you deserve."

Domino shrugged. "I knew I'd be fine."

"Oh, yes, of course. How could I forget about your luck?"

And of course, now Vanessa started advancing on her, leaning into that 'I'm a badass' prowl that they presumably taught at villain school. Domino didn't back up, refused to cede even an inch of ground, and consequently found herself face-to-face with Vanessa as Vanessa furiously hissed, "If you think for a second that your luck will stand up to Emma Frost's double-cross -"

"It's that or going against DMC alone, and I don't feel too good about that," Domino said. "Which, if you think my luck is real at all, should worry you. I don't generally do things I don't feel good about."

"Let's see how you feel about this," Vanessa said, and punched her.

Domino ducked - barely. Luck had nothing to do with it; she moved on instinct, lashing out with a stiff hand, then kicking as Vanessa dodged. She found herself slammed against the wall by a too-strong arm, Vanessa's features contorting as she moved to punch - but her fist only hit drywall, and even as Domino's favorite vase fell from its shelf and shattered, Domino rolled away.

"Jesus Christ," she got out, dodging the knife Vanessa threw at her. "What is your problem?"

"Call it mental instability," Vanessa said. "I'll admit I'm disappointed, though. When Wade and I used to play -"

"This isn't playing! This is - fuck - fighting!"

Vanessa's hand flexed around the candlestick she'd grabbed. She twirled it in her fingers, facing off against Domino with shoulders squared. "Sure about that?"

Domino forgot about self-defense for a second, she was so exasperated. "That's a brass candlestick. If it makes contact with my skull, I'm dead."

"Ooooh," Vanessa cooed, "but that would be so unlucky."

And, okay, maybe Domino wasn't that much smarter than Wade after all, because for a second she was horribly distracted: by the sun glinting on Vanessa's hair, by the look in her eye as she advanced, by the fucking detailing on the brass candlestick and the way it cut into Vanessa's skin. It only took a second of being struck stupid by the beauty facing her, and then she was on the floor, on her back, fighting to regain her breath even as Vanessa kissed her.

Bad idea, Domino's luck told her. Bad, bad idea.

But if she did a stupid thing, her luck could dig her out later. Right? Too often, she'd been too scared to test it. Faced with the possibility of working alongside Emma Frost, though, going up against DMC, all the stupid shit she'd not just agreed to but encouraged -

Well. Maybe it was time to test the boundaries of her luck, just a little.

She kissed back, locking her legs and rolling them. Vanessa went easily, like she'd been waiting for it, arching her back and laughing when Domino made a stupid noise. "You can think I'm hot, you know. It's fine."

"Yeah, thanks, I went to a women's college," Domino said, and got to work making it so Vanessa couldn't come up with smartass shit to say.

It was impossible to forget about their mission here. There was the moment Vanessa gasped, with Domino three knuckles deep in her, and said, "Wa - wait, wait," and Domino could've sworn she'd been about to say Wade. There was the moment Vanessa pinned Domino's legs and every alarm in her brain went off, and she nearly sent Vanessa through the coffee table. But in between, before and after, there was only pleasure: coming around Vanessa's fingers, against her mouth, kissing her and laughing when Vanessa finally ran out of words.

-

Nothing good could last. Vanessa hopped off Domino's hips with a smile and said, "Fun time. Thanks." Domino didn't see her again all day.

She went down to Sister Margaret's later, just to blow off some steam. Weasel handed her a drink and said, "Wade has a message for you. Do not stab me. Stab Wade, instead."

"What's the message?"

"Quote, two words: dental dams, end quote."

"Motherfucker."

Chapter 3

Summary

A test run.

Notes

unfortch I fell into Venom fandom, but this is NOT abandoned, it IS on its way to being finished! who doesn't love a little light-hearted trauma?

SPEAKING OF, there is PTSD and suicidal ideation in this chapter, still pretty much canon levels of yikes.

"Here you go. Three days of guard rotations, Emma's notes on using the code-breaking algorithm you found, and sixteen DMC-branded mints."

Domino looked up in spite of herself, blinking at Vanessa in confusion. Vanessa shrugged. "They're good mints. And I have light fingers."

It was obvious from the sheen of innuendo in her voice that she'd intended for that to bother Domino, to get her all hot under the collar. "You're such a dick," Domino said, and took the guard rotations to study.

It had been a week since she'd slept with Vanessa, and nothing - almost nothing - had changed. The exception to that rule was that instead of hanging around the apartment making snotty comments, Vanessa spent most of her time gone, chasing after intel on DMC that would make their planned heist simpler.

The intel barely existed; DMC was as competent as they were secretive, and Domino straight up couldn't see many weaknesses in their organization. But Vanessa was out at all hours anyway, pounding the pavement, avoiding Domino like it was her life's calling.

Domino couldn't blame her. They'd eaten dinner together exactly once. Domino had cracked a joke about Emma locking them both in a pocket universe, Vanessa had said she was sure they could find a way to pass the time, and then Domino had lost her breath fantasizing about pushing their food on the floor and fucking Vanessa on top of the table. Disgusting; ridiculous. Really, really unnecessary, in every possible way. The point of this was to halt DMC's power, not figure out how easy it was to fist a shapeshifter.

"Get it together, Dom," she muttered.

"Get what together?"

Fuck. Vanessa was still there, watching her read with an amused smirk on her face. "Nothing," Domino said. "I'm just worried, you know, that we'll get captured and murdered."

"Unlikely. Captured, brainwashed, and our powers turned to serve evil, on the other hand?" Vanessa tossed an apple from hand to hand. "Odds are 300:1 in favor of that right now, or so Weasel tells me."

"What does Wade think?"

Only long practice enabled her to see Vanessa's response. She didn't flinch, because she didn't move at all. Every single muscle went very still. To Domino's eye, she might as well have screamed. "Haven't asked him," Vanessa said finally, and took a huge bite of her apple.

She should really just let it lie. "Why not?" Whoops.

Vanessa stared at her like she'd lost her mind. "Are you seriously asking me that right now?"

"I'm just curious. He cares about you."

"And I care about him. Like you care about your dying grandfather, or your childhood dog." Vanessa shook her head, looking away. "You know, when I touch him now, I can feel his fucked-up genes."

"Can't you feel my luck when you touch me?"

She realized her mistake a breath too late. Vanessa looked back at her and smiled cruelly - and then the bones of her face cracked and shifted as she turned herself into Domino.

"I couldn't forget it if I tried, baby," she cooed, walking towards Domino with a predatory prowl that Domino knew she'd never be able to imitate.

"Hey. Knock it off."

"Why?" Vanessa smiled slowly, looking Domino up and down. "I've got this weird little feeling that going through with this is a very lucky idea."

"That's not how it works." And that smile had no business being as hot as it was. Domino didn't want to fuck herself; she could just see Vanessa in front of her still, even wearing Domino's own skin. "Just - hang on."

"Tell you what. You want me to stop, I'll stop. All you have to do is tell me."

And Vanessa kissed her.

For a second Domino thought she was going to get her shit together enough to push Vanessa away. But then she felt it again, the weird tickle that was the only real indication that she even had a mutant power. It lurked in the back of her head like mockery, telling her that actually, continuing to kiss Vanessa was a great idea and she should definitely do it.

Unbelievable.

It wasn't a good idea. How on earth could kissing Vanessa be lucky? But her power just - insisted, lurking, driving her crazy. Almost as crazy as Vanessa's fingers biting into the back of her neck, pressing her against the wall. Fuck it, Domino thought, and bit Vanessa's lip, returning the kiss with vicious interest.

It wasn't until Domino reached down to get Vanessa's top off that she shifted back into herself, breaking away from Domino with a gasp, an almost predatory gleam in her eye. "Still interested?" she said, looking Domino up and down and licking her lips.

"Unfortunately for me, yes." Domino held out a hand and pulled her in, kissing her again, pinching her nipple. Vanessa shivered against her, and then laughed, flattening a hand against Domino's chest and dropping to her knees.

Domino's luck thrummed in smug satisfaction as Vanessa made her scream.

-

"Neena."

It was a dream. Domino knew it was a dream, because her mother was dead and had been since Domino was seven. Give or take. The orphanage hadn't exactly been good at record-keeping. "I want to wake up now."

"Don't be dramatic, hon. This isn't that kind of dream." Her mom sat down at the kitchen table across from her, steam coming from her mug. Domino figured that if she looked in it, it would be full of blood, or bugs or something. Or maybe looking away from her mother would make her turn into one of Domino's old torturers.

"I said I want to wake up. You're not real."

"Don't you give me that sass. We don't have much time here." She reached out and covered Domino's hand with her own.

Domino looked down on instinct. It was a normal hand, a little worn-looking, rougher than Domino's own. She looked back up, bracing for the worst.

Her mother smiled back at her, a sheen of tears over her eyes. "I miss you, you know."

"You're dead."

"Sure, and magic doesn't exist, but my daughter's full of it." Her mother squeezed her hand. "Darling, what you're doing is dangerous."

"Lots of stuff is. We have to do it."

"If you're going to put your life in danger, you should tell her how you feel."

Domino blinked. "What?"

And the hell of it was, her mother looked at her and Domino remembered. She remembered the look, the don't-try-it attitude, the gentle love and kindness and -

The dream was fading. "Wait. No."

"I love you, Neena. Get back to living your life, whatever that means to you."

Domino woke in a cold sweat. She didn't manage to get back to sleep.

-

"I think it's time for a trial run."

Domino blinked. "You do?"

"Mhm. I think we're ready."

"All three of us, huh?"

Vanessa shrugged. "Do you want to involve X-Force? I listen when you talk, you know. I remember you saying it was a disaster."

"Only because it was Wade's pet project. X-Force 2.0 wasn't so bad." Though really, needing to involve time travel probably counted as a bit of a disaster. Thanks, Cable.

"So you want to bring a bunch of other people on board before we do a trial run?"

"I'm not so sure a trial run is really the best way to do this."

"I think you're chicken."

Vanessa was trying to bait her. Domino knew it, because it was super fucking obvious, and Domino wasn't an idiot. Unfortunately, knowing and not letting it work were apparently two wildly divergent things. "Okay. Look."

"...I'm waiting."

"I can't think of anything," Domino admitted. "I am scared, okay? What if they shoot us?"

"We'll get better." Vanessa frowned. "Or we won't. We probably won't care either way, though."

"That is not reassuring."

"You know, it's funny, I wouldn't have thought you'd need reassurance, what with the luck and all."

Domino gritted her teeth.

"Wade told me you were like, Frank Sinatra levels of cool. All, 'don't worry baby, I can jump out of a helicopter and hunky celebrities will appear out of nowhere to carry me on their shoulders all the way to the caravan'."

"Wade's a lunatic."

"Sure, but when you peel away the editorializing, he's usually also right." Vanessa pointed at her. "You're scared. Why? Is it the luck?"

Because Vanessa trusted the luck, Domino realized, at least as much as she trusted Domino herself. Great, fine, they were having casual sex anyway, it wasn't a feelings thing. Vanessa didn't need to trust her. Who cared about trust, not Domino.

"Hey." Vanessa snapped her fingers in front of Domino's face. "Is it the luck?"

Domino batted her hand away, more sharply than she really needed to. "No. No, it's just -" Feelings. Ugh. "I'm just feeling a little down, okay? Tragic orphan shit, not anything you need to care about."

"Trust me, I don't."

"Well. Good."

They stared at each other, a parody of awkwardness. Vanessa, Domino noticed for the hundredth time, was beautiful. Really, truly, movie-star beautiful. Domino really didn't want to be the kind of person who was ready to U-Haul someone she'd fingerfucked a few times, but -

Well, she totally was.

"We can do a trial," Domino said. "Let's just. Be careful, okay?"

"When have I ever not been careful?"

Domino crossed her arms and glared.

"Okay, fine. But I'll be careful this time." Vanessa shot her a ridiculous, bone-meltingly sexy smile that Domino knew was practiced and calculated, and that was still insanely hot. "For you, babe."

"Fuck off."

"Come make me."

Against her better judgment, Domino did.

-

The plan was relatively straightforward. Vanessa was going to go in with Emma, who'd managed to work her way up to having a broad security mandate and minions, one of which Vanessa would be pretending to be. While in, she'd transmit data back to the surveillance van -

"Creep van," Vanessa wouldn't stop saying.

- where Domino would be observing. If they needed backup, Domino would be the one to go in.

"I get to stay safe," Emma said, "Because I'm a valuable asset, and because I don't want to risk my life for this frankly insane plan."

The worst part was that Domino really couldn't even argue with that. So she sat in the van, watching as Emma led Vanessa in and then haughtily informed her that she was on her own with the 'file collation', as Emma had a meeting.

It was a flawless performance; Domino half believed Emma really thought Vanessa was her employee by the end of it. Except, of course, that something felt really off about the whole thing. She'd ignored her feeling this morning; she already knew this heist attempt was kind of a bad idea, she didn't need a superpower for that brilliant insight.

But now...

Mostly, in the past, she'd only followed the little nudges that told her if she did something, she'd have good luck. She never had to think about, say, dodging a car, or avoiding getting killed by a falling piano. She just stepped away at the right moment, and then she was fine. Whatever the inverse of her good luck sense was, it didn't generally make itself known to her.

So it was kind of a problem that she was sitting in the van, practically crawling out of her skin with the way her senses were screaming at her.

"Everything okay?" Vanessa murmured into her earpiece.

"Sure," Domino lied.

"You sure about that?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're breathing impressively heavily. Like, guy-in-a-porno kind of breathing."

Domino gritted her teeth. "Let's just get this done, okay?"

And then, of course, it all went to shit.

She watched someone walk into the server room. Vanessa's button cam caught distinctive features: a blotchy red scar on the left side of the woman's face, brilliant blonde hair, a birthmark on her neck. Domino knew her, though she hadn't seen her since they were both in their pre-teens. Her name was Jessica, and -

"You're not supposed to be here, Copycat."

- her power was that she could counteract every other mutant's power.

"Motherfucker," Domino said, and started running.

The power cut off as she ran up to the entrance. She took advantage of the confusion to slide past the security guards. Down the hall, she came across a dropped ID and DMC coat; she put them on. The higher-security zone Vanessa was in had a stuck door when she got there; she ran past. In all, it took maybe two minutes.

She got to the server room in time to see Jessica put a knife against Vanessa's throat. "Stop!" she screamed.

Jessica did, in fact, stop. She turned to Domino and froze, her eyes widening. "Oh my God. Neena?"

Domino opened her mouth to say - something, who the fuck knew how to resolve a situation like this? But it didn't matter. The fluorescent light above Jessica flickered and then broke on one side, swinging with heavy finality, right into Jessica's temple.

She crumpled to the ground. Before Domino could move, Vanessa was at her side, grabbing her hand. "We leave. Now."

Domino found their way out, going down halls her luck nudged her towards. They didn't encounter a single person, and the exit they found was covered by a single, dead camera. They got back to the van, and Domino saw that only fifteen minutes had passed.

"Holy fucking shit," Vanessa said. "That was incredible."

Domino collapsed into the driver's seat. "I..." Say something, she told herself. Be normal! You know how to be normal!

But she'd just watched someone from the old days die. Someone who knew her before she knew how to be normal, before she was Domino. The last time Jessica saw her, she'd been small and scared and stupid as hell.

How much could she possibly have changed, if Jessica recognized her right away?

"Hey." A warm hand on her arm. Vanessa looking up at her, her normally impassive face concerned. "What's going on in there?"

"I can - I can drive us back. We shouldn't contact Emma. Till later."

"Yeah, her cover would be blown right now if you hadn't saved our asses. I'm not asking if you're okay to drive, though. I'm asking what the fuck happened back there."

She felt so, so tired. The kind of tired that shifted the entire axis of her existence and made her consider -

Well. Stuff she didn't think about most of the time. "I'm okay, don't worry. I'm just tired. I'm fine. I can drive."

"The hell you can. Get out of the car."

Domino blinked. "Excuse me, what?"

"You heard me." A blade pricked her elbow. Oh, right, Vanessa was a sociopath now. "Out. Right now."

Domino followed directions, mostly because she couldn't do anything else. The problem with Vanessa pulling knives was that Domino had absolutely no doubt that she'd use them. So she let Vanessa drive them back to the rental place, then hail the taxi that got them back to Domino's apartment. She didn't even say anything when the taxi driver told them the previous passenger had paid their fare. She stayed silent, and tried to breathe, as Vanessa locked the door behind them and steered Domino over to her couch.

"Tea? Coffee?"

"Um. I think I have some vodka, actually."

"Healthy." But Vanessa poured her some of the good stuff - them, actually, two glasses. Instead of stalking off into the guest room, she sat down next to Domino, close enough to lean against.

Domino didn't. Couldn't. But she said, "Thanks," and drank her vodka.

"I just need to know one thing."

She held herself very still, ready to spin a lie about who Jessica was, how Domino knew her.

Not that she thought Vanessa had somehow forgotten DMC's file on her, or whatever. But she didn't want to talk about it.

"Did you have a bad feeling about today?"

The question was so far afield of what Domino'd been expecting that for a second her brain just didn't process it. Vanessa didn't mock her, though. She just waited.

"Yeah," Domino said finally. "Actually, I did."

"Tell me."

So Domino explained, how she'd felt a little off but had discounted it, how her luck really never spoke to her about avoiding things. "It was just - strange," she said finally. "I didn't expect it. I chalked it up to nerves."

Vanessa took a sip of wine, very slowly. "Your powers are changing."

"Excuse me, what?"

"It happens. Just look at me."

"You died! And I'm an adult!"

Vanessa shrugged.

If she'd been asked, Domino probably would've said she expected Vanessa to argue, trying to persuade her. That was, after all, what Wade would do, and in Domino's head they were almost the same person. But Vanessa watched, and waited, and it occurred to Domino - hey, better late than never - that Vanessa wasn't the same as Wade at all.

"It changes sometimes," she admitted. She'd read the same news articles as everyone else.

Vanessa nodded. "Like your hair if you have a kid."

"Kind of not your only problem, then."

"Still. It changes."

"Yeah." She took a deep, wobbly breath. Fuck. "I'll tell you, then, next time. If I feel it."

"Good." Another sip of wine, another long silence. "You shouldn't have been able to get in."

"Into DMC? I got lucky."

"I know. It shouldn't have happened. They hedged against it, everywhere, at all times."

Domino knew what she was trying to hint at. She did her best to let her down gently. "I don't actually control my luck. It was a coincidence, or they didn't know what they were doing."

"DMC's best-in-class. And plenty of people want to shut mutants down." Vanessa quirked an eyebrow. "You're definitely more powerful than DMC thought, probably more powerful than Xavier realizes. You'll have to deal with it at some point."

Domino shrugged.

"Like, the stock market might be super good for literally the rest of your life because all your money's in it, and you're lucky."

"I can't control world economies with my luck. Come on."

Instead of arguing, Vanessa kissed her.

Domino should've called bullshit right then. Vanessa kept doing this, and it was clearly her favorite avoidance maneuver. But instead of doing something reasonable, like talking, Domino felt her whole world spin out of alignment. Vanessa's lips on her own felt like - still a bad idea, Domino thought wildly, in spite of everything. A mistake, every time. But they also made her wet and desperate, turned her into someone she hadn't realized she was before. She became determined to make Vanessa beg, and when she slid to her knees on the hardwood floor, opened Vanessa up and licked her till she was close -

Vanessa begged until Domino let her come, then screamed, thighs locked around Domino's head. And Domino felt something deep and primal inside her curl up in satisfaction, hollowed out and full all at the same time. Vanessa dragged her to bed and got her off, and Domino didn't even care that they fell asleep in Domino's own room, tangled together, hearts beating almost in time.

Chapter 4

"You know, I think you're enjoying this just a little more than you should be."

Domino gritted her teeth. They were almost to HQ; she didn't have time for this teasing. "Shut up."

"I'm just saying, if you want me to wear a collar around the house -"

"Keep it up and I'll just leave you there."

"Darling, flirting's meant to be believable," Emma said in Domino's ear.

Domino pressed her lips together so hard she almost bit through them, refusing to answer. Next to her, Vanessa touched the collar she'd insisted on wearing and smirked.

It was so stupid. Domino had her zip-tied like any bounty hunter would; the collar was just a dumb aesthetic detail. But God, she looked good and Domino was apparently saving up all her luck for when they actually started the heist.

She pulled the truck up to DMC's entrance. "Got a delivery for Special Ops."

The guard didn't even glance up. "ID?"

"Just a bounty hunter with a really juicy bounty. Call me 10k. 100k? Hm, we'll see."

That got his attention. He looked up, eyes widening; Domino caught his gaze and winked. She could feel her power expanding, crackling along her skin. Here's hoping Vanessa was right: they'd need a truly godlike amount of luck to get through this.

"Copycat's bounty is 250 g," the guard said. God, he was just a kid, really. It was a shame he'd decided to join the worst bureau in a country full of awful ones. "Is that seriously her?"

"None other."

"Fuck you," Vanessa snarled, making a big show of struggling against the zip ties.

The kid buzzed them in. They had to drive down a long, wooded street before getting to DMC itself, a corporate office park in the middle of woods used for survival training, or mutant torturing, or whatever the fuck. Domino couldn't look around, because she'd give up the game. There were two mutants in the air right now and six on the ground, watching them.

DMC suspected a trick. Domino was certain they had no idea exactly how right they were.

"Get out," she snapped at Vanessa, yanking her out of the truck. She frog-marched her up to the entrance, a gun against the small of her back. For a horrible second, all Domino could see was her beautiful shoulders, muscles tense, and she wanted to -

What? Stop the heist? Way too late for that. "On your knees," she said, and watched grimly as Vanessa knelt in front of the 20-man strong guard waiting for them at the front desk.

"You didn't give Andrews your name," said the man at the very front of the crowd. He had bars on his shoulder - some kind of fake general, apparently.

Domino smiled at him and felt her luck shiver. "You don't need to know my name. You know who she is. Pay up." She wiggled her fingers at him.

She saw the exact moment he tilted towards her. Twenty minutes later, she had her money and an offer for a tour of the facility. This had been the part of the plan Domino knew would work yet couldn't plan: letting her luck do the heavy lifting of getting them access to the servers.

Now if only she could be assured Vanessa was okay, things would be perfect.

"I've got eyes on her. She's fine, as we knew she would be," Emma said in Domino's ear. Fuck psychics, honestly. "Oh, darling, I'd be too much for you."

Fuck Emma Frost in particular, Domino thought acidly, and gave the DMC tech showing her their torture lab another vapid smile. "What does this do?" she said, finger hovering over a big green button affixed to a plexiglass wall.

"Don't! Touch that!" the tech shrieked. "That's the chemical interference button!"

Oh boy. She pulled her hand away, but did her best to look like the kind of person who might still slam a dangerous button for basically no reason. "Meaning...?"

"You hit it, and a chemical that scrambles mutie genes and makes the rest of us puke goes through the HVAC system. Christ, where'd they fish you out from, a social work program?"

There was some kind of backstory there that Domino didn't care about, and figured she'd be really pissed if he elaborated on. "Whoops. That's so impressive, though. The security here is so crazy."

"You fucking bet it is. We've got the nastiest set of muties in the country here."

Like they were Pokemon. Domino hoped Vanessa found a reason to kill this guy, specifically. "Wow, yeah. Hey, but what about the, like, research? How do you know what the muties can, like do?" To drive the bimbo point home, she snapped her gum in his face.

He blinked, then turned bright red, then said, "We have the best servers in the country. Eat your heart out, Mark Zuckerberg! I can show you them, right now."

Bingo.

-

"Wow, that's so many terabytes," Domino said as the USB drive containing the codebreaking algorithm downloaded DMC's entire data system.

It definitely shouldn't have worked that way, but apparently it really was their lucky day. Domino batted her eyelashes at the tech and added, "You know, I had to access data on Copycat's habits to capture her."

"Oh, yeah? What are you, some kind of super-hacker?"

"Hmm, maybe." She licked her lips and looked him up and down. "Probably not as smart as you, though."

"I built the AI system keeping all the muties locked up. See, if I type this -" He typed a command into the nearest terminal - "And hit enter, they're all let free. Because the AI rules the jails, and I rule the AI."

He was barely making sense in his urge to impress Domino, but her luck didn't care. It tickled the back of her neck - right before he sneezed, jerked backwards, and hit enter.

"Shit! Shit!" he said as alarms started howling. "Fuck!"

"Oh no," Domino said, and kicked him in the face before grabbing the USB drive, which had of course hit 100% transference during the wait.

"She's just down the corridor, in row E-20," Emma said in her ear. "That kid really did let every single prisoner go, though, so be careful. I can't help you from here."

"You're a more valuable asset if you stay put," Domino said. "Anyway, I think I'm good." She was in E-15 right now, five underground blocks from Vanessa. She hadn't planned for needing to dodge thirty pissed-off deadly mutant prisoners, because the whole point of her power was the she couldn't plan for it. Still, she was pretty sure she'd be fine.

And she was. Two of the prisoners saw her, ran for her, hit each other, and started duking it out as she ducked past them. Another one tripped over a power cord and went on fire before she reached Domino. A fourth started crying and screaming, "You look like my sister!" By the time she got to E-20, three separate people had locked themselves back into their cells for no reason at all.

"Hey there," Vanessa said, lips curling in a near-sneer. "Took you long enough."

It was completely ridiculous that a shiver ran down her spine at Vanessa's tone, her creepy aggression. Why was it sexy? Why couldn't Domino just be into normal shit? "Whatever. Let's get out of here."

They turned together to leave, and all the hair on Domino's arms rose up in horror. Less than a second later, before she could react to her luck screaming at her, Vanessa said, "Shit."

A gun was pressed against her lower back, held by a massive, hulking DMC agent who'd appeared out of nowhere. Maybe literally, Domino though, and went very still.

"Make a move and Copycat dies," the agent told Domino.

Domino met Vanessa's gaze. He meant it; Vanessa wouldn't have looked terrified if he hadn't. She looked like she recognized him. Domino recognized that barely-leashed panic; it was the same way she'd felt when she walked into the room at the orphanage.

DMC had put her through so much pain, and Domino really cared, wanted to save her from more. God fucking damn it.

"Back away slowly," the agent said. "Hands on your head. I've got a power dampener, so don't try any funny business."

Domino felt the air around her move as she licked her lips and said, "Hey, big boy."

"Power dampener!" the agent all but shrieked. "Don't even try it!"

"Be a shame if it broke," Domino said, and pushed.

Everything happened quickly after that. Vanessa changed into the guy behind her, picked him up, and threw him through the ceiling. "Superstrength, nice," Domino said, and then they were on the run.

They shouldn't have made it out alive. Domino knew that now - power dampeners, holy fucking shit, she had no idea DMC had expanded their Ice Box tech that much. Emma had warned them that they were out of their depth, but that was different from having lightning bolts thrown at them, and dodging bullets, and narrowly avoiding being captured by a powerful psychic. Domino was very afraid and then very determined; she ducked and dodged and hit back, and somehow, her luck bent the axis of DMC's power enough to allow their escape.

"Holy shit," Vanessa said when they were safely back in Domino's apartment, having ditched the last of their DMC tail only fifty miles ago. "Good thing you found a Bugatti in the DMC parking lot."

"Lucky me," Domino said, slumping against the door.

"You saved my life." Vanessa sounded a little pissed about it, in that painfully Vanessa way that Domino had discovered she was super, super into. "How the fuck did you break through the dampener? Wade almost died in his, and that was next-gen shit compared to the collar."

Domino shrugged. "Got lucky."

"Ha fucking ha." Vanessa pressed a hand against her shoulder, where Domino could see a bright red burn fading unnaturally quickly. "They tased me. I thought they'd kill me. That plan should not have worked."

"Well." Domino wasn't sure what Vanessa wanted, and it pissed her off even though she knew that was Vanessa's game. "Look, can't we just acknowledge we got lucky and - let it go?"

"We didn't get lucky. You made us lucky. Get self-actualized and just acknowledge that."

Something about the order incensed Domino. She shook her head, then clenched her hands into fists. Anger coursed through her, urging her to reach out, to scream, to hit -

To fuck, because Vanessa was looking at her deliberately provocatively, and she knew it, and she knew Domino knew, too. God fucking damn it.

"You're a dick," she said finally. "The data is what matters, and we got that." She pulled out the USB stick in question and put it into her computer. Terabytes of data loaded in the folder that popped up on the screen.

A hand on her hip. Vanessa's warm breath on her neck. Domino tried, and failed, not to shiver.

"I think you know your power is unique," Vanessa said. "And I think you're avoiding admitting it because you don't want to deal with how that changes your life."

Domino turned around to tell Vanessa to go fuck herself. Somehow, they ended up kissing instead.

And fuck, Vanessa was good at this. She dug sharp fingernails into Domino's jaw, pushing her backwards until she hit the wall, stepping up into her space and biting her lip. Domino's computer was still open, the files waiting to be looked at, but it was hard to focus on that when Vanessa yanked Domino's jacket open and pulled her pants down, dropping to her knees to kiss Domino's thighs and -

"Fuck fuck fuck." Domino bit her lip and stared at the ceiling as Vanessa pressed two fingers into her. She was already so wet; it was pathetically easy. God damn it.

"Admit it," Vanessa said silkily, curling her fingers and pressing against Domino's g-spot. "You're insanely powerful. You got us enough information to take town DMC and you barely broke a sweat. We could've broken in a month ago with no plan at all and it probably would have gone just fine."

Domino was never going to be able to make fun of Wade's weird kinks again, because this was doing it for her like nothing else had. "Fuck you."

"Hmm, I don't think that's what you want." Vanessa fucked her roughly, almost hurting her, sucking on her clit and bearing down when Domino tried to squirm away. "But hey, maybe if you get really lucky, I'll let you come."

"Fucking -" Domino grabbed her hair and pulled her closer, moaning as Vanessa's tongue pressed against her entrance, right alongside her fingers. Vanessa slid a third finger in, stretching her, watching with almost glowing eyes as Domino began to buck and shake.

"Come on," Vanessa murmured. She turned her head to kiss the inside of Domino's wrist, then bit down hard, almost breaking the skin. Domino cried out, her whole body shaking like she'd been struck by lightning -

And she came like that, bearing down on Vanessa's hand, fluttering around her fingers. Screaming into her apartment. Fuck. Fuck.

She didn't even get a chance to reciprocate. Something had happened with Vanessa - she'd missed something important. Vanessa bowed her head, pressing her face against Domino's hip. She slid her own hand between her legs and came almost instantly, pressing her thighs together and sobbing against Domino's thigh.

"Holy shit," Domino said, knees trembling.

Vanessa stood while Domino was still trying to get her shit together, wiped her mouth and looked Domino up and down. When she spoke, her voice was huskier than usual, not quite shaking. "Send the info to Wade. He's a dipshit, but he'll help you make sure DMC can't take any more kids."

Don't ask, Domino's luck all but screamed at her. Don't ask, you don't really want to know, don't ask, don't ask. "What about you?" her traitorous mouth said. "Will you help me?"

Vanessa looked around Domino's apartment, at the high ceilings and woodwork and original windows. She looked back at Domino. She raised her eyebrows, gaze lingering on Domino's face. "I think my luck's running out," she said finally.

And then she left.

-

"Oh, boy. Alone at the bar, crying into your tequila. This isn't just cinematic, it's rom-com-tastic! What happened? Tell Daddy."

Domino sipped her Bulleit and said, "If you ever call yourself 'Daddy' in front of me again, I'm going to end you."

"You know that's not possible, Dom. Now, show me on the doll where Vanessa broke your heart."

Something terrible and bitter turned and cracked in her chest. "I don't know what you're talking about."

If Wade had kept being Wade - meaning, obnoxious and annoying and generally empathy-free - then Domino would have told him to go fuck himself and moved on with her life. But instead he picked that moment to be a decent person, leaning forward and saying, "Hey. I'm sorry. I honestly thought you guys had a good chance of working shit out."

Domino shrugged, then pulled out the USB drive containing all the decrypted DMC data. "You should probably do something with this."

"And by me, you mean Cable." Wade made the drive disappear in his suit. "Yeah, I guess we're kind of a unit, these days."

"He's lucky," Domino surprised herself by saying. But it was true.

Wade patted her hand. "Vanessa would be, too."

"I don't even know if I liked her." Oh, no. The bourbon was making her say shit. "I mean - I did like her. But it was all so...there's been a lot going on."

"Well, she's not here now."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"I just mean you seem to miss her. And Vanessa's easy to fall in love with."

Domino realized a little too late that she was dumping her romance problems on Vanessa's ex. "Um."

"Don't worry. I've moved on." He said it like you might say 'I've been mauled by a bear'. "But if you love her, you should tell her to sit on your face. She loves that."

And with that extremely dubious advice, he was gone.

"Maybe," Domino told her drink. The brown liquor glinted against the ice cubes. "Fucking...maybe."

-

The next morning, someone started pounding on her door, a rhythm that almost matched her furious hangover. "One second!"

She opened the door expecting a Publisher's Clearing House check or maybe just some free pizza. Instead, she got Vanessa, foot reared back like she'd planned to kick the door down.

"DMC on your trail?"

"No."

Domino eyed her hovering foot. "Freak ballet accident?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Okay, so -"

Vanessa careened forward and kissed her.

Domino generally just let lucky stuff happen to her, a strategy that had pretty much worked perfectly for the decade she'd been free from the orphanage. This felt like one of those lucky things; her instincts were telling her to relax, to go with it. Too bad her brain was screaming what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck in time with her heart, even as she stumbled back into her apartment and let Vanessa press her against the wall.

"What the fuck," she said when Vanessa pulled away.

Vanessa bit her lip, looking away from Domino. She was breathing hard, pupils blown wide. She was insanely, impossibly hot. "I'm pretty sure being brought back from the dead made me a sociopath."

"Yeah, no shit."

"But I care about what happens to you. I care."

"Sorry," Domino said.

"Shut up. It's not a bad thing."

"That's a matter of opinion."

"Shut up," Vanessa said again, and kissed her.

It was way too easy to lose her mind like this, with Vanessa jumping up and wrapping her legs around Domino, kissing her and kissing her until Domino's head spun. She felt like there should be more to it, frankly, because nothing in her life had been easy despite all the good luck, and all she'd learned from the X-Men was that your life got more complicated and deadly when your powers grew.

But it was easy. It really was. She pulled away long enough to say, "Hey. Hey, I care too."

Vanessa's eyes glowed a little as she said, "Good."

It was easy to kiss Vanessa, and laugh with her, and fuck her, and shout at her. It was easy to make up. It was easy to imagine this lasting a long fucking time.

Lucky her.