Scott and Angel, Friday morning

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

As promised, Scott goes in search of the school's newest student (even if he is a little edgy about getting properly back in touch with his teacher-side). It turns out he didn't need to have worried. For Angel's part, she gets a number of questions answered, and a rather nifty demonstration with a pop can.


Taking a deep breath, Angel let go of the side of the pool and pushed herself off the wall with a powerful motion, arms and legs smoothing out into a constant rhythm. It had thrown her, at first, to have dived into the pool and the temperature of the water to have not really made a difference. The water felt good, it always would, but it was like she had a personal temperature gauge in her that adjusted things internally so she'd always be comfortable.

It was disturbing in this case. The first dive into the pool should freeze you from top of the head to your toes.

It was another perfect August day. Scott could feel some of the tension in his shoulders relax as he stepped out into the bright sunlight; the ache didn't entirely go with it, but it eased a little. He'd take what he could get.

He headed out to the pool a bit hesitantly, though, sinking down on the end of one of the lounge chairs to watch Angelica moving through her laps. Should I really be doing this? It had been impulsive yesterday, offering to talk to her. But he'd been in such a good mood after reading Crystal's book report that it had come out naturally. There was a new student. The new student was an energy-projector. He'd trained energy projectors. Hence he needed to talk to the new student - and she seemed like a good kid, eager to get started on learning how not to set things on fire. That sort of attitude should always be encouraged.

But could he...

You wimp.

On the last turn, Angel spotted someone sitting near her staging ground and she sped up. That was probably Mr. Summers, then, because he wasn't looking at her like she was insane for swimming so very early.

Reaching the end of the pool, she broke the surface, pulling herself up and over the lip gracefully. She'd been in the pool before she could walk, it was second nature at this point.

"Mr. Summers?" she asked, walking over to towel off before offering him her hand. "Angel, it's nice to meet you in person."

Scott summoned up a smile and took her hand, shaking it firmly. "Nice to meet you too, Angel. Glad to see you're settling in."

She grinned, wrapping a towel around her waist as she sat down on the lounge chair next to him. "It's been interesting, that's for sure. And I thought my school was weird and I don't think we had mutants...or at least, none that ever came out. Not that I can blame them, you know?"

"Most high schools aren't known for their free and easy acceptance of diversity of any sort, no," Scott said, his lips twitching. "And there are too many cases where just being a mutant makes you a troublemaker in the eyes of those who aren't." He thought of Laurie, and wondered if Angel had met her yet. He suspected the two of them would get along; they seemed to have the same sort of sunny disposition.

"Yeah, this is true. Though the amount of emails from the swim team--we were all going to try out for the high school team together--has been out of this world." Angel grinned, looking proud and home sick at the same time. "They're all rallying around me and they even want to do a fundraiser for Xavier's once the school year gets going."

Scott's smile was a little more natural. "I'm glad to hear that. Sounds like you have good friends." It was always so much easier for the kids to adapt if they had that type of support. Angel's parents, from all accounts, were the same way. "So," he said more briskly, looking around the pool area. Ah-hah, he thought, spotting just what he needed sitting out on the table. "I told you I was an energy-projector, too. Would you like a demonstration?"

At the offer, Angel sat up straighter and only barely managed to not clap her hands in glee. While asking people what they did was one thing, she figured it was rude to ask for a demonstration, even if all the powers were really, really awesome.

"That would be fantastic!"

It was an old trick. Get them thinking about mutant powers as 'cool' and it tended to minimize their anxiety about their own powers. Not that Angel seemed to be overburdened with that - again, a good thing.

Scott narrowed his eye - and in the next moment, the empty pop can was blown off the table and landed a fair distance away, on the lawn. It was visibly in pieces, even from here. "I can do that with much bigger objects," he said amiably. "Like cars. But what does it mean, do you think, that I can do it with a pop can?"

It took a second for her to answer and then she closed her jaw with a snap. That was the first visible power thing she'd seen, besides her own. It...was nice to really know she wasn't the only one.

Angel thought about his question for a second. "You can do that with cars and smaller objects?" she repeated, biting her lip. "It's...like a camera lens. You can widen your focus for more power or narrow it down, right? So. It means you have...control?"

"Exactly." The level, friendly, reassuring tone was coming with no trouble at all. Apparently this was like riding a bike after all. "Which is something that you should be able to have as well, given time and work." He didn't like giving definitive promises about that. There was always the chance of physiological issues and other problems that might make complete control impossible. He'd been the perfect example of that for a very long time.

"Actually-" he went on, and wondered why he was introducing this particular tidbit just now - but then, this whole conversation was about following his instincts, wasn't it? "-I haven't had proper control for all that long myself." He tapped the scarred side of his face. "I lost my eye in an accident last year. Before that I had to wear glasses made out of a material that would block my optic blasts, because when I was very young I was in a plane crash and suffered a very serious head injury. The brain damage affected the on-off switch for my powers. But after I lost my eye, I had that on-off switch back, because it only had to control the blasts from one eye. So I spent a few months last fall and in the New Year learning my powers all over again." He grinned crookedly. "And you know what they say, about how if you can teach an old dog new tricks..."

A bubble of questions surged up but Angel bit her lip, hard, in an effort not to blurt them out. "Oh wow. How did you...you know, lose the eye? Because that sounds painful and not exactly an every day thing. I mean, Kyle lost his toes but apparently he axed himself and I can't see that happening with your eye and it'd be really hard to do that to yourself."

Angel pulled in a mouthful of air. "So you had to learn two different ways of working with your power?"

"Pretty much. I had to go from controlling them mechanically to controlling them myself - it was a big step. Fortunately," Scott went on amiably, "I knew all the basic theories about control, how you should go about learning. I won't say that it was easy - I had some pretty frustrating days, but I did have that edge. It helped." He looked a bit ruefully, rubbing at the scars. "And I lost my eye when I got caught in those riots in Seattle in November," he said, opting for discretion. She'd learn about the X-Men soon enough.

That sobered her up quickly and she glanced over at the water. "If you were there to help," Angel said, looking back, "thank you. It was a scary time to be in Seattle and my mom was trying to help out as many clients as she could so we sometimes didn't know where she was." She explained about that, "My mom's a civil rights lawyer, works with minority groups and has been working with mutants for a few years now. Mostly pro bono type of stuff."

Angel took a moment to clear her thoughts. "Is learning to control your powers really, really difficult?"

Scott gave her question the thought it deserved. "Sometimes," he said quite candidly. "Sometimes it's a struggle. Sometimes it comes in leaps and bounds - control, I mean. It really depends." He smiled down at her. "The one thing you can depend on," he said, almost gently, "is that you won't be going through any of it alone. The bad or the good. There'll be lots of people around here willing to help commiserate and celebrate."

"That helps. I mean, it's a good start that I've got fire proof bedding coming and these..." Angel reached into her satchel and proudly pulled out the smallest fire hydrant she'd ever seen. "Aren't they the cutest things ever? I carry a few with me. So, yay on preventive measures. Am I allowed to work on my powers outside of class? How does that work?"

"Well, I'm not going to tell you no." Not unless something happened in experimentation that warranted it, of course. "We'd prefer you do as little as possible on your own until you're in regular powers training and know precisely how you should be practicing. And you'll have to spend some quality time with Doctor MacTaggart," Scott said, putting on a deadpan look. "Lots of poking and prodding and testing."

At that, Angel pulled a face. "I think I'll stick to just trying to turn it on and off or in nonflamey places. The only doctor I've ever had is back home so it's really weird having new ones. It's hard to, you know, decide to leave one doctor after he's helped deliver you, even if I was in a bath tub at the time."

"Doctor MacTaggart is probably the world's foremost expert on genetic mutation - we're lucky to have her, even if she's dividing her time between here and her research center on Muir these days. But you know," Scott said, getting up and going over to retrieve the pop can, "if you have to experiment, doing it near a source of water isn't a bad idea." As he came back to where Angel was sitting, he leaned back against the edge of the table instead of sitting back down.

"Hey, yeah, that is a really good idea. I'll have to keep that..." Angel stopped and stared at Mr. Summers for a second. "Oh! Er. Do you mean right now so just in case something goes all flamey you can toss it and me into the pool and then no more flames, right?"

Scott tilted his head at her, a look of honest amusement crossing his features briefly. Not at all afraid. "No, I actually didn't mean right now. This isn't one of those 'I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours' conversations, don't worry."

"Oh, good, because I don't know if I can." Angel flexed her hands and frowned at them. "The few times the power has gone off, it felt like a sunburn rising from my skin. I guess with concentration and a whoooole lotta luck, I could do that again. But so not right now." She beamed up. "I like that it's blue, though, it's pretty fire."

"Probably says something about the nature of the fire." Or its heat levels. "I probably will get you to try and, um, light up at some point soon," Scott conceded, "but not until we've established a little more about your power and we have nice controlled conditions to do it in."

"Controlled is good, it's very, very good." Satisfied with the fact that she would start to learn soon, under good conditions, Angel sat back and chewed on her lip again. "Um. Mr. Summers? Can I ask you a really strange question about your eye? I mean, I can hold it in but then sometimes really stupid things tend to pop out of my mouth. I told Kyle he had ears instead of calmly explaining that pointy ears are really, really adorable..."

"... I suppose." Why did have this sneaking suspicion that he should have figured out a way to tell her no?

"Is your eye removable and if it is, can you store stuff in it--the eye itself because the eye socket..." Making a face, she continued, "I think that would be unsanitary and all. But can you put stuff in it for, like if you need it later?"

There was a very long pause. "I saw it in a movie once, he had explosives in the fake eye that was right behind a patch. I...I'm sorry, I had a lot of sugar this morning."

He was not going to laugh. Really, he wasn't. "Is this where I say 'I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you'?" Scott inquired innocently.

Angel burst into giggles. "I think it is, sir," she said, grinning around the hand that was trying to keep the laughter in. "One of my Poppa's friends from the war had a fake leg and he used to hide his drink in it. It can be a useful thing sometimes!"

She was a sweet kid, Scott decided with a brief, reflective smile. And this whole conversation was making him remember something Jack had asked him at their session last week. A question he'd left him with. What do you enjoy about your job?

When it stops feeling abstract hadn't come to mind as an answer at the time. It was coming to mind now.

"I think I'll have to keep that particular secret until I get to know you a little better," Scott said, mock-gravely. "And right now, I think I need to go in search of breakfast. You've got your school email account all set up, yes? Once Moira's done her tests, you and I could probably arrange for a little prior-to-term tutoring if you wanted."

She wondered if it was sanitary to hide snacks in a fake eye but kept the thought to herself. "Yep, all set up and overflowing with comments already. And that would be fantastic, thank you. Kyle wants me to learn fast so I can make him food."

"That's just what he needs - his own personal microwave." Scott shook his head, then offered her another brief smile. "You have a good day," he said, straightening. "I'm glad we got a chance to talk."

"Thank you for coming out here," Angel replied, tossing off the towel. She could get in another half an hour or so before wandering around the mansion. "I'll talk to you later, Mr. Summers!"

And if the dive into the pool resembled a cannonball more than the graceful dive she'd done earlier, she didn't care, just giggled in her mind before starting to swim again.

Comments

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

You're DAMN RIGHT I need my own personal microwave. It'd be awesome. I mean, cute, funny, can reheat leftovers right there, and totally got my sense of humor.

Also likes my sandwhiches. This is a plus.