Scott and Shiro, Monday

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Back on the ground in San Diego, Scott checks on yet another of his X-Men, and finds out that Shiro rather badly needs to take a break. Frog-marching to the nearest food station commences.


Scott hopped down from the fire truck - they'd been kind enough to give him a ride since they were headed in the direction he wanted to go - and looked up. "Sunfire," he subvocalized into his com. "Take a break?"

"In a moment," Shiro replied, stifling a yawn as he blasted what might have been the remnants of an office into smithereens. And then he promptly forgot Scott's comment and went on to another pile of rubble. Not that he meant to disregard his leader, but there was a lot to do and he couldn't just sit around and hoist responsibility onto other people's shoulders.

"Sunfire. Down here, now," Scott repeated, just as calmly, if a bit more firmly.

"What?" Shiro asked as he landed, perhaps a bit more curtly that he ought to have. "I have more to do today."

Scott raised an eyebrow at his tone. "You can take a minute and take a break," he said, but almost gently. "I know you had some recovery time back at the mansion, but I don't want to see you overdoing it."

"I am fine," Shiro insisted. He cracked his neck loudly and winced at the sound. "This is easy work. I cannot exhaust myself doing this." He'd be more exhausted if he did nothing.

All right, so there was a touch of stubbornness going on here. Possibly more than a touch. "Have you eaten recently?" Scott asked. "We can't actually subsist on sunlight."

Shiro was starting to take after Scott, it seemed. And not in the good ways. "Um, what time is it? I had breakfast . . ." A good one, even. He just couldn't remember how long ago that had been

Scott reached out and took Shiro's arm. "Come on, there's a Red Cross station up the street. Hot food. Much better than MREs."

"Can't I just finish this last block," he asked as he followed Scott. "I told the demolition crew that I would have it done by five o'clock, and there is still a lot left to go."

"The demolition crew doesn't want to have to be taking time out of their efforts to pick you up and shuttle you to a triage tent when you keel over for lack of food," Scott pointed out, not unkindly.

"I do not keel," Shiro protested. "I saunter vaguely downwards." And now he's babbling. Maybe Scott was right. He pulled off one burnt glove and rubbed at his eyes.

"Well, you're still making jokes. That's a good sign." Although it was apparently part of the X-Men code to crack jokes in extremis, so maybe that wasn't quite as reassuring as it should be. "We'll get you some food and you can get back at it." If you don't fall asleep as soon as you sit down.

"How is the kid?" Maybe if Shiro talked about the important stuff, then Scott wouldn't keep him for so long and he could get back to actually doing.

"Recovering. He's as safe as he can be, at the school," Scott said with a sigh. "Although he's seen the news, by now, I'd think..."

"The 'captured and tortured by the insane magnetokinetic' club is going to outnumber the 'whoops, did I blow that up?' club soon," Shiro quipped. He accepted a bowl of soup from the kitchen staff, but at Scott's look, sighed and took a sandwich, too.

"Yeah, I'm thinking that's a club we're going to want to restrict the membership of real soon," Scott said dryly, steering Shiro to a bench-line table. "Sit down."

"I thought we were supposed to be the ones telling you to take a break," Shiro muttered. It was good soup, though.

"I had a break, remember? Three whole weeks." And wasn't he damned glad this week that he'd done that. "Besides, spending this much time in the sunlight gives me plenty of energy," he said, laying a hand briefly on Shiro's shoulder and squeezing. "Some of us can to some extent subsist on sunlight, after all. Will you stay and finish your meal if I leave you, or do I need to watch?" He gave Shiro a crooked grin.

It was a tempting thought. But a dangerous one, because Shiro had no doubt that Scott would find out soon enough. "I will stay and eat. I'm a big boy."

"Yeah, you are." Scott smiled down at him as he rose. "I'm proud of you," he said more quietly. "Keep in touch, all right? I'll check back in with you in person, probably tomorrow."

Shiro nodded. Only the boiling soup and toasting sandwich belied his giddiness at Scott's comment.