Xaviers!

How Isolde looks and how she feels are entirely at odds as she makes her way into the club with Wanda. She's done her part and dressed well for the occasion, but this very much isn't her element, let alone a person she wants to talk about her... new love... with.

Wanda, for her part, seems to be happy if a bit apprehensive as she leans on Isolde. "You said she wanted to talk to me?" The doorman seems to be expecting them and they skip right past the line.

"I'm sure it won't be... that awful," she concedes.

"But she might be a bit smug. It's her default."

"Smug I can deal with... sometimes," Wanda says, looking at the cards in her hand as they approach the VIP section. "Although this feels like she's buttering me up."

"You're important to a great many people. Whether you feel like you are or not."

"Some days it feels more like that than others," she says, holding out the cards to the VIP bouncer who looks at them and then nods, pointing to a booth next to the "Management Only" stairs. Wanda nods and hooks her arm in Isolde's as they arrive at the booth.

"Ah, so we're doing this are we?" Isolde asks as Wanda takes her arm.

She doesn't seem to be shying away from it.

"Doing what? Being us?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.

"She is my ex, fair disclosure."

"You'd rather I be professional? That was a different you at a different time, yes?"

"Just looks a little... possessive," she says with a faint smirk as they're shown to the booth.

Wanda slides into the booth, "Does that bother you or make you happy?" She smirks back.

"I could get used to it," she admits, her eyes scanning for their hostess.

Erica isn't immediately in evidence and things aren't quite busy enough to hide her. A member of the wait staff approaches, "Miss Carlisle left instructions, anything you want, on the house tonight." Wanda glances at Isolde, "Now it sounds like she's trying to butter you up. You don't think she's trying to steal you from me, do you?" It's not entirely clear whether she's teasing or serious.

"Let's just say that bridge was... thoroughly burned by our time together."

"Indeed," says a voice from the stairs. Erica approaches, grinning, "I merely believe in proper payment for services rendered. That's all."

"And she knows a bit too much about me," she says, regarding Erica as she approaches.

"Knowledge is power, my dear," Erica says, turning her attention to Wanda, "Though I'm sure you're learning that in your own way."

Wanda nods, "After a fashion. You said you had something you wanted my opinion on?"

"All in good time. To be honest, I need a small bit of time to prepare, so enjoy yourselves. I'll come get you when I'm ready." She gives them both a smile and walks off towards the main floor, causing employees to put on just that extra bit of professionalism as she passes.

"Is being cryptic a side effect of living a long time?" Wanda looks at Isolde, obviously teasing.

"It... affects the sense of urgency," she says, equally cryptically.

But she's smiling, at least.

"Hopefully the waitstaff has more of a sense of urgency," she says, motioning for one of the nearby waitstaff, "Because I feel the urge to have a drink."

"I don't think this will be that stressful a night for you."

"If it is, I can make sure she regrets it."

"Unwritten expectations weighing on me, I guess," she says, ordering her drink, "And I've been feeling..." She pauses, trying to find the words, "Like there's additional expectations now? Like not this thing," she gestures in the direction Erica left in, "but just... in general."

"Like I said, you're not just anybody."

"It's..." She frowns, "You talked about possessive earlier and it's sort of been a possessive thing. Like feeling at home, but more so? Not the club, but back at the University."

"So it's more... your domain." She arches a brow.

"Something like that, I guess," Wanda says, noting the arched brow.

"Maybe don't get your heart set on anything just yet."

"What do you mean?" Wanda sets her drink down.

"I might be wrong, but a number of the Children tended to get... set in their ways."

"Like curmudgeonly or something else?"

"Picked a spot as theirs, for good or bad. Wouldn't leave it. You had to come to them."

"Like the couple you talked about in Scotland," Wanda says, "Out in the middle of nowhere."

"And mind you I don't know how early any of them reached that decision."

"I could always ask Erica," Wanda says, "She seems knowledgeable, but..." She looks over to where Erica seems to be headed back their direction, "... I doubt I'd like the price."

"...this evening's paid for," she sighs.

Wanda raises an eyebrow, but the question she's about to ask dies on her lips as Erica arrives. "I think we're ready for you, my dear," she says to Wanda, gesturing towards the stairs to the manager's office.

Wanda nods and scoots out of the booth, heading for the stairs. Both women head up them, leaving Isolde more or less on her own.

For a moment, Isolde ponders letting Erica and Wanda have their privacy.

In another time, perhaps she would. Now, though?

Now something gnaws at her, and after a moment she follows them up.

Wanda is already through the door and Erica is about to join her when she turns to look at Isolde, crossing her arms, "I distinctly remember telling you that alone was preferable."

"I know what you'd prefer," she says with a rather direct look.

"I'd prefer to not have a volatile creature in a carefully controlled space," Erica says, eyeing the direct look with a blunt gaze of her own.

Wanda's voice can be heard behind Erica's, coming from the office, "That's certainly... strange. Why are you holding that over that box?"