"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.