Title: Another Day In Paradise
Fandom: X-Men

Pairing: Jean/Emma

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Not mine, the characters belong to Marvel and I'm just borrowing them for a spell.

Summary: A brief look into Jean and Emma's life together amid the chaos of life at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. The story is a companion piece to my story Underneath it All, and takes place about a year after the events depicted in that story.

xxx

Part 3

Frost-Grey Bedroom – Evening

The sun burned brightly where it hung high in the sky, but a light breeze kept the temperature pleasant instead of stifling. The sky was mostly cloudless and the air was rich with the smell of smoke and cooking meat; it pulsed with the sound of conversation, laughter and shrieking children.

It was a picture perfect summer day.

Emma felt as if she had stepped into an episode of a 50s sitcom, and if it had not been for Jean beside her, Emma would have fled from the astral projection the moment she was brought into it.

Jean was by her side however, her hand firmly entrenched in Emma's, and because of this one little fact, Emma had found herself starting to relax, and had eventually started to enjoy herself as they moved through the throngs of people assembled at the Grey family barbeque.

"Who's that?" Emma asked, smiling wickedly as she pointed to a man standing by the deck railing, smoothing his hair down as he looked at his reflection in the sliding glass door.

"Oh god," Jean moaned as she followed Emma's finger to the man in question. "That's Uncle Eli, he's powerfully strange," she continued sighing deeply as Eli shot his reflection fingers guns and then winked at it. "Keep an eye on him if you want to see idiocy made into an art form."

The redhead stopped walking for a moment to focus on the memory they were in. A wry smile touched Jean's lips a few seconds later as she remembered that Uncle Eli had been in fine form this particular family barbeque. It made her glad that Emma wasn't able to interact with the memories because she knew that Eli would've made a complete fool of himself trying to charm and impress the gorgeous blonde, and that it would have been beyond excruciating to watch.

Turning her head to the side, Jean spotted a younger version of herself wandering off into the front yard and grabbed Emma's hand excitedly, tugging on it.

"Come on, this is good. I made Billy cry," the redhead explained sounding extremely pleased as she forced Emma into a jog to keep up with her as they followed the astral projection of her younger self.

Emma looked over at her questioningly. Jean, she had discovered, found it painful herself to see other people make fools of themselves or be otherwise humiliated, so it was surprising to her to see Jean so giddy over the fact that she had made some boy cry when she was ten.

"Look at you," Emma drawled. "All gleeful with malicious intent," she continued smiling when Jean turned to look at her.

"Just wait," Jean said knowing that she must have sounded a bit mean spirited. "You haven't met Billy yet," she continued leading Emma across the street to the walkway that would take them to the park.

She supposed that she could have just skipped ahead in the memory, but half the fun of the astral journey's they took was going through the memories as if they were actually there, taking it all in together.

The astral adventures were something that they had accidentally fallen into one evening when Emma had gone into Jean's mind to try and help her remember an old acquaintance they had bumped into at the theatre. They'd agreed – or she should say Emma had agreed for them – to meet the woman and her husband for drinks after the show, but for the life of her Jean hadn't been able to place the woman, and since Emma had gotten them into the awkward mess, Jean demanded that the blonde help her find a memory of the woman if Emma wanted to sleep in their bed that night.

Working together they were eventually able to determine that the woman had been one of the girls at a soccer camp Jean had attended when she was fifteen. With Emma's help they had been able to locate the memory in a matter of minutes, but instead of returning to the real world to finish watching the show, they had continued to explore Jean's memory of that summer. Emma, blue-blood that she was, had never been to a sleep away summer camp – or any kind of camp – and so she had badgered Jean for details about 'the camp experience'. Jean hadn't particularly liked the show they were at, so she'd indulged Emma's whim and taken the blonde on a little tour, showing her the torturous exercises they were forced to run through, some scrimmages they had gotten into, getting drunk on peach schnapps and going skinny dipping, and a few other memories that stood out from that summer. She'd thought that Emma would get bored with it the more they saw, but to her surprise the blonde was actually quite interested in the adventures her 15 year old self had gotten into and they had stayed happily immersed in her head until the sound of clapping drew them back to reality.

The mind vacations weren't something they indulged in often, but sometimes if they were bored, or just wanted to relax and have a little trip without leaving the mansion, they would escape into Jean's mind for a few hours.

Emma had brought Jean into her mind a few times, but the memories Emma shared were consciously significantly different from Jean's. Emma usually took Jean to different places around the world, a museum in Paris, or a Shinto temple in Japan. It was always the two of them surrounded by nameless people as they explored something beautiful. The only time Emma had brought her to a memory that involved her family and her life before going to University it was of her older brother Christian. He had taken her on a tour of haunted places in Boston when she was twelve, and Jean and the adult Emma had followed the astral projection of the pre-teen Emma and her older brother, listening to the stories Christian told her as a kid. As they moved through the memory, adult Emma added in bits and pieces, fleshing out the memory as she answered Jean's questions about how Christian knew so much about architecture and the like.

It had been delightful, but when they stopped outside of a large historical house and Christian began to tell the story of Flavia Price, a woman who had killed herself inside the house in 1912, Emma's memory had started to loose focus and before Jean could help her steady it they were suddenly in a large tile washroom and Christian was slumped over in a large bathtub, looking deathly pale as blood ran from his wrist down the pristine white side of the bath, forming a glistening red pool on the marble floor.

Jean knew that Christian had survived the suicide attempt, but Emma had pulled them out of her head before they got to his resuscitation, and upon opening their eyes in their bedroom, the blonde had immediately left the bed, walked over to her personal bar and poured them both a drink before turning to Jean and sighing, 'Fuzzy memories' as she lifted the glass of amber liquid in her right hand to her lips and took and large sip.

They hadn't been anywhere but observatories, deserts, beaches and bazaars in Emma's mind since.

"What could this small child have possibly done to make you revel in his misery so?" Emma asked drawing Jean out of her thoughts, the question making Jean focus her attention on the expanse of green grass in front of them before she turned to look at the soccer game being played.

"He said that a girl would never be able to beat a boy at anything other than cooking and probably not even then since the most famous chiefs were men," Jean replied scowling at the astral image of Billy.

Billy had deeply offended her little feminist heart before she even knew what a feminist was, and she had made him pay for it.

"I hope you kicked his ass," Emma commented turning her attention to the game being played, her eyes narrowing frostily as she did.

Little Billy was now officially on her shit list as well.

"Of course," Jean responded. "Gleeful, remember?" she continued as Emma stepped behind her and rested her chin on Jean's shoulder as she hugged her from behind. "I might have also accidentally kicked something else of his," Jean continued, grinning when she felt Emma chuckle.

"You're a dream," the blonde muttered, pressing a gentle kiss to Jean's neck before she lifted her eyes to watch the younger Jean pass the soccer ball through Billy's legs and then meet it behind him before taking off towards the goal post.

"I am pretty amazing," Jean agreed laughing as Emma nudged her ribs playfully at her complete lack of humility.

"I'm your girl," Emma said as the younger Jean scored. "Does that make me amazing too?"

Jean dipped her head down in an attempt to hide the large smile that spread across her lips when Emma referred to herself as 'her girl'. She'd never had cause to doubt Emma's commitment to her. Whenever they were together Emma's love surrounded her like a blanket, warming and comforting her. Still, it pleased Jean and gave her a little thrill to know that Emma thought of herself that way because Jean certainly thought of herself as Emma's.

"No," Jean said seriously, though a small smile was still playing across her lips. She could feel Emma's displeasure at the statement and didn't need to turn around to know that Emma was frowning. "You were amazing way before you met me," Jean went on, her smile growing as she felt Emma relax and snuggle happily against her again. "Not very nice, but …" she continued, laughing as Emma started to tickle her, though it wasn't Emma's roaming hands that stopped her from speaking.

Before she could finish her sentence a piercing buzzing sound filtered into her brain from the world beyond.

"Trouble?" Emma asked with a sigh knowing that Jean was far too young to have encountered an air raid siren during her childhood.

"Probably," Jean replied.

It usually was at the mansion.

"Time to go save the world again," Jean continued out loud once she had drawn them out of her mind.

"Yay," Emma declared without the least bit of enthusiasm.

Jean laughed at that and took her lover's hand into her own as they headed for the door to their room. Whatever the situation was that they were about to be briefed on likely wasn't going to be fun, but with Emma at her side, Jean knew that she would be able to get through anything.

The End