III
Emma was the first to arrive to the kitchen. She almost froze at the door when she saw the intimate moment between Janos and Azazel.
Something she believed gone a long time ago broke when she thought about the betrayal she was going to inflict on them.
She chastised herself. She couldn't allow herself to be weak again, to feel for others when their suffering could mean she was safe from harm
.
She was born into a family that hated her for her gifts, and used her for their purposes. She tried to be a good girl, to help others children like her when she was younger, but that never did any good for her.
She had to learn too fast that sometimes sacrificing others was the only way to survive. She kept telling herself, again and again, that this time was different. Azazel already survived what those men did to him.
Having to live that nightmare again wasn't going to be worse than what he survived, right?
But even if Emma was using that excuse with herself, she couldn't keep her eyes from the two men who so clearly loved each other, even in this world that couldn't accept love between two men, this world that couldn't accept mutants.
Janos and Azazel where exactly everything that the world could happily hate. They were different in every possible way, and what Emma couldn't understand was the fact that they didn't care. They were happy, together. Or at least they could have been if only they would tell each other the truth about their feelings.
It was in the moment that thought formed in her head that she knew she was going to invade their minds, for a good reason this time, after Sebastian had his way with Azazel. That could have been a good way to tell she was sorry without having her to admit to her part in Sebastian's plan.
Azazel felt Emma the moment she arrived. He didn't need to read minds to know that she was watching him and Janos, and he didn't like that.
He didn't like anyone invading the privacy of his moments with Janos. Azazel knew all too well how rare those moments were, and didn't want to share them with someone he didn't trust.
The older mutant met Emma Frost more than six years ago, in Czechoslovakia, when Sebastian Shaw had finally been able to track him after years of hunting the teleporter. She was the beautiful and unreadable woman who wasn't only Sebastian's lover, but his bodyguard too. She shielded him with her mind and body, and was as cold as he was.
She led the interview Sebastian forced on him, to be sure the other mutant wasn't working for anyone else, or didn't have any information he didn't want to share.
Azazel knew he'd never forget the moment he felt her inside his mind for the first time. It was a violation like he never felt before.
He had known she was able to go everywhere in his mind, even in the darkest corners where he kept his secrets. And he knew those where exactly the places she was looking for. (I like this background, this glimpse of how he met Emma and Shaw. Good job).
Janos was getting up to prepare Emma her usual cup of tea, when Azazel's arm tightened and a hard expression placed a mask on Azazel's face.
Something was very wrong with his lover, and even if the young Latino didn't know what it was, he knew it was trigged by Emma.
He raised a hand and put it lightly on Azazel's face, slowly caressing the smooth skin with his thumb. Janos was looking directly into his lover's eyes, smiling, and his expression spoke of much love, trust and safety.
It was like the two of them were talking. A dialogue no power or mutations could have explained. Their souls were communicating and Emma was suddenly and extremely jealous of what was happening in front of her eyes.
Azazel let him go, regretting the loss of Janos's warmth against him.
Never in her whole life she had experienced something so deep with another person, not even with her powers and the possibility to bend other s' minds to her wishes, but she always had wanted that kind of relationship with someone.
Sadly she fell in love with the wrong man. She knew that Sebastian wasn't the kind of man able to love someone, but still, she couldn't fight when she started to fall for him, and now she was his right hand, his lover, and his accomplice in the many terrible things he did for his own pleasure.
She was so deep in love with him she didn't even react when she found out he was one of the doctors who betrayed everything they swore to protect, and worked inside the camps during the World War II.
Not even that was enough for Emma Frost to run away from Sebastian; not that and not seeing with her own eyes one of the innocents he used as a guinea pig.
Emma Frost was lost, a lost cause, a lost woman, a lost little girl who only found kindness in the arms of a man who was in truth a manipulative monster, and she didn't care anymore.
The world they were going to destroy and rebuild and rule as the dominant race took everything from her, and made her the cold woman she was, but maybe in her it was still a little sparkle of the soul she once had. That little spark that was making it so damn hard to sell Azazel to Sebastian's pleasure.
"I'm not going to bite him, Azazel; you can let him come close…"
She sat at the table, waiting for her tea, like the queen she thought she was, and watched Azazel and Janos's reaction to her words.
Sadly it seemed like the two men didn't want to entertain her in her little morning game, but at least she got her tea a moment before Sebastian Shaw arrived in all his glory.
The man was wearing a pristine navy blue outfit that only made his soulless eyes appear even colder than usual but increased his attractiveness and his lean body.
Sebastian pressed a kiss on Emma's head before sitting close to her. It was like the temperature in the room drastically dropped the moment he sat, but what froze Azazel's blood in his veins was the cold and inhuman smirk that formed on his lips when he looked at Janos.
"Good morning gentlemen… Did you two have a good night of rest?"
Sebastian loved to play with his little mice, and Janos, Emma and Azazel were his personal toys, deadly and lethal, and with powers great enough to scare the entire world, but they were still just toys in his hands.
They were made for his entertainment, to help him pass the time, pass those years that escaped for everyone except him.
The world around him was changing so fast, and he was the only perpetual thing in the kaleidoscope of lights and noises and information that otherwise could drive him crazy.
He needed his little toys, and they needed him, because he learned - time after time, and in the camps - that every creature, every so-called victim in truth need his tormentor to keep going.
The man had to use all his willpower not to laugh when he saw Azazel's fist getting pale with the need to hit him.
He always loved his reactions. The well-trained soldier, the man used to always following orders and surviving anything couldn't keep his temper in check when Janos was threatened or simply in the middle of a bad situation.
Janos was Azazel's weak spot; that was clear. And Sebastian was going to use his weakness to his advantage.
He knew, watching them together day after day, how to get what he wanted. He knew the right buttons to press, the right things to say.
Emma was going to be a great and important help, but in the end Sebastian wanted Azazel to go willingly to his bed; he wanted the other mutant able to blame only himself for everything Sebastian was going to do to him.
Shaw couldn't help but wonder when the quiet and silent Latino he had found in a dirty alley in Bogota had first fallen so hard for Azazel.
He could feel Janos's rage through the bond with Emma. If he closed his eyes and focussed enough, Sebastian was sure he could taste the bile rising in Janos's mouth for what he dared to do with his innocent question.
That was going to make his victory even sweeter.
It was time for Sebastian to play his game and he knew it. After months of waiting, he was ready to start.
"I hate to ruin breakfast, but sadly we are at war, and we can't let our enemies to know they are under attack. That means we have to work faster and harder. And that we have to start from the leaders of the Soviet Block…"
Azazel almost felt the food he just ate coming back in his throat. He had a bad feeling.
He still had the smell of burnt flesh and blood in his nostrils after the last time he visited a gulag, and Sebastian seemed to like those place to organize his meetings with the allies that only were pawns in his hands.
He wondered if sending them to Russia, or whatever it was they were going to end up, meant he had time to fuck Janos without worrying about interruptions.
"My love here will steal the real plans for the defences they want to use against any American threat. The real locations where they want to put their men, the real places where their spies really are, everything they are trying to keep secret will be in our hands soon. But Emma can't go there alone. She's too beautiful to travel alone in this dangerous world…"
Emma smiled coldly. She knew well what Sebastian was doing, what his plan was, but she didn't care. It was enough for her to make herself believe his words were true, because after all, when he would have had what he was obsessed with, when his lust would be spent in Azazel's pain and body, she was the one left in his bed, by his side, and that was enough for her. Maybe she was never meant to be the only one in Sebastian's mind and bed, but she was always going to be the first.
"She needs someone to keep her company during the nights she'll be forced to endure boring company, and endless talks about politics and power, and of course to defend her honour when one of those men will try to lure her into his bed."
Azazel was confused now. There was no way he could do that for Emma. Maybe Sebastian was thinking about showing him? But that was insane, especially now that they were so close to their goal.
"Riptide , you are going to be Emma's safe-keeper and partner in her nights in Moscow. And you are going to take good care of her."
The silence in the room was so thick and unreal that Azazel could feel it like a too-heavy cloak around his shoulders.
He didn't understand what was going on, but knew for sure that he didn't like it.
"Now you two go and get ready. Azazel will take you in Moscow in one hour."
Sebastian Shaw left the room before anyone had time to speak.