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.