Disclaimer: I do not own The Gifted. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Lorna had forgotten that she had already broken her new bed, but when she returned she found it as good as new. Which made her wonder, had they fixed it somehow or was it just new. Was there someone like her already in the Hellfire Club? No, she thought, if there was Esme probably wouldn't be taking such an interest in her. Then again, who knows with that girl. Or girls. Lorna was still a little confused about how all that worked. She tried to put it out of her mind, but the next hour or so she found her mind wandering back to Esme, which was extremely annoying. She told herself it must be the Frost sisters deliberately doing this to her, just like they had the last few days... only, why would they? Unless...
Hearing a knock on her door Lorna was initially relieved to have something to interrupt her thoughts, only for it to of course be a certain beautiful blonde, causing the green haired girl to grumble, "What do you want?"
That annoying blonde asked, "Can I come in?"
"Why? Do you need an invitation?" Lorna quipped, leaning in and slightly smirking, "Are you a vampire?"
The blonde smirked back, gently but firmly pushed her back and practically slipped her way inside while murmuring in a singsong voice, "I'm Esme, by the way."
"I know!" Lorna snapped, hating the way those words caused Esme to smile happily, "What do you want?"
Those words also caused Esme to smile as she thought about the obvious reply, before ignoring the question and telling the other girl, "I have a little gift for you."
Lorna had been so distracted by Esme she hadn't noticed the other girl had a hand behind her back, which momentarily concerned her until she saw what the blonde was holding. Then Lorna groaned, "Really, a crown? Really? Aren't you taking this whole Queen thing a little too far?"
"Honestly? I just wanted to see if I could get a smile out of you." Esme confessed, to her delight getting what she wanted, "Oh, there it is! Totally worth it."
Hating herself for the moment of weakness Lorna grumbled, "I was just laughing at how pathetic you are."
"You know it's pointless to lie to a telepath, right?" Esme asked softly, moving closer.
There was a brief pause as Lorna consider denying it, and then just sighed, "You know that's super annoying, right?"
"I've been told." Esme said softly, closing the distance between them before gesturing to the little crown she was holding, "Can I?"
Lorna looked down at the crown, and then scoffed with only a fraction of the annoyance and contempt she meant to convey, "Seriously?"
"I just want to see how it looks." Esme shrugged, gently pushing, "Come on, what's the harm?"
There was another brief pause, and then Lorna sighed and nodded, causing the blonde to smile softly, reach up and slowly place the crown upon her head. There was nothing playful or mocking about it as far as Lorna could tell, and there was this weird, rather intense moment right after it where Esme brushed a stray strand of green hair behind Lorna's ear and just stared at her for a few long seconds. Then Lorna cleared her throat, moved back slightly and then turned to look in the full length mirror, a cutting quip on the tip of her tongue about how tacky and cheap the thing looked. Only that quip was quickly forgotten as she had to admit, if only just to herself, that she looked kind of good.
"See, a perfect fit." Esme smiled.
Yet another brief pause and then Lorna asked softly, "Is it real?"
Esme nodded, "To the tune of $30000."
"Fuck me, seriously?" Lorna exclaimed, "That's more than anything else I've ever owned. Combined!"
"So, maybe don't wear it when you think you're going to have to get your hands dirty." Esme suggested playfully.
"Wait, you're giving this to me? Seriously?" Lorna exclaimed in disbelief.
"Welcome to the Hellfire Club." Esme winked, and then when Lorna gave her a sour look she pouted, "Oh don't be like that Lorna. You can still save the world without wearing rags. Speaking of which, your wardrobe is filled with clothes in your size. Pick something out and join me downstairs. We've got some mutants to recruit."
With that Esme turned and left the room, Lorna watching her leave before snapping herself out of it and walking over to the wardrobe and opening it up to sure enough find plenty of expensive looking clothes inside. They were all in her size, and more or less all in her style, or at the very least something she might consider wearing, which Lorna couldn't decide whether was creepy or impressive. Maybe slightly less so because she knew it was a result of literally having three mind readers at it's disposal. But still, the Hellfire Club was clearly trying to buy her loyalty, proving they didn't know her at all. Lorna couldn't, and wouldn't, be bought by pretty things. She was here because she had to be. No other reason. That said, the benefits certainly didn't suck.