By the time Soren finally stepped out of the genetic laboratory, the pale light of dawn had already crept over the horizon.
Cool morning air brushed against his skin, carrying the faint scent of herbs and medicinal plants from the hospital courtyard.
He was exhausted… but elated.
His steps were steady, though the fatigue clung to him like a heavy cloak.
The results of his work, the creation of something utterly new, filled him with a satisfaction words could never convey.
Waiting patiently in the courtyard was Jean, seated beside a small table set with food she had prepared hours earlier.
The gentle flicker of her telekinesis kept the dishes warm, the sight of them a welcome comfort against the backdrop of endless work.
As soon as Soren appeared, Jean's eyes brightened.
"What were you busy with this time?" She asked, voice tinged with concern, though she tried to mask it with a half-playful scolding.
"Do you forget you're human sometimes? You don't even stop to eat when you work."
Soren gave a faint, crooked smile as he dropped into the seat opposite her and began devouring the food without hesitation.
The taste, after an entire day lost in genetic manipulation, felt like a tether pulling him back to the physical world.
"Jean." He said between mouthfuls.
"Don't you know me by now? Forget a day, I could fight ten days and ten nights without stopping."
There was the kind of playful humor she'd grown familiar with.
But something in his words made Jean's expression falter.
That offhanded remark, the predatory grin, made her heart tremble.
"Don't say that." She narrowed her eyes. "It's dangerous."
Soren, lounging in his chair after a satisfying meal, tilted his head at her, eyes gleaming with mischief. "Dangerous?"
"Or exciting?"
Jean opened her mouth to retort, but he was already moving…
"Soren!"
She was cut off by the sudden weight of him, his mouth capturing hers with a hunger that had nothing to do with food.
He kissed her like he'd been waiting far too long, like she was the only cure to a craving he barely understood.
"You're impossible." Jean murmured against his lips, but her hands betrayed her, curling into his shirt, pulling him closer.
"And you…" Soren growled softly, lips tracing the line of her neck, "…are exquisite."
The secluded courtyard of Everlife had always been a place of calm and quiet, the gentle rustling of leaves, the faint shimmer of spirit herbs under moonlight.
But tonight, the air was thick with heat and passion rising like wildfire in the still night.
Soft gasps and breathless laughter broke the silence between flowering moonbuds and glowing vitae roots. The scents of jasmine and musk tangled with the scent of skin.
Every kiss deepened, every touch ignited, until time itself felt irrelevant, lost in sighs and sheets tossed aside like old excuses.
Their bodies moved in sync, a rhythm somewhere between storm and symphony.
Lust gave way to tenderness, which gave way to fire again. The night stretched on, fevered and endless.
Later, as the sky turned violet with dusk, Soren gathered Jean, flushed, bare, and laughing, into his arms.
He carried her through the back corridor, where vines curled across the stone, and pushed open the door to a quiet chamber.
There, in the corner, sat an old grand piano, its keys ivory white under the lantern glow. He set her gently on the bed beside it, brushing a lock of hair from her cheek.
"I should warn you." His rough from the night's exertion, "I've developed a terrible addiction."
"To what?" She teased, tracing lazy circles on his chest.
"To the way you sound when you say my name."
She flushed… just a little. "Then you'd better keep earning it."
"Challenge accepted." Soren chuckled, pulling her close.
It had been a while since Jean left the X-Mansion and the ever-tightening web of conflict that surrounded the mutant world.
In her absence, much had happened.
Though bound by an old, complicated history, Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr Magneto, had once again parted ways.
Their visions for mutant kind's future, while born of the same pain, had diverged once again…
Xavier believed in peace. In a future where humans and mutants could coexist as equals, where tolerance and understanding might overcome centuries of fear.
Magneto believed in power. In a world where mutants would no longer beg for acceptance but would rise up and claim their place as nature's next step, forming their own nation.
Their philosophies clashed like fire and ice.
Jean had felt the pull in both directions.
The professor's endless hope and Magneto's burning certainty.
After what happened with Phoenix, with the losses, betrayals, and bloodshed… she wasn't sure what to do now.
Perhaps that was why she came to Everlife.
Here, in Soren's strange sanctuary, far from the ideological wars, Jean had found her peace… her doctor.
She could rest, breathe, and maybe… learn something more about herself.
But deep inside, fear lingered.
She knew it was only a matter of time before the world came knocking again… demanding her.
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
Fellow Phantoms and aspiring Phantoms to be, if you seek to access advanced parts of this story procced to my shadowy realm of p@treon.
PhantomDream