xp_logs | The Rose: Territorial

x-cyclops.livejournal.com posting in

On the plane on the way to Tibet, Logan decides to keep Scott company in the cockpit. Scott is not precisely, how do you say, grateful.

Logan, sitting in the co-pilot's seat, looked at the vast expanse of dials, switches, and readouts with a degree of confusion. He had no idea what any of it meant, but Marie was in back fixing herself something to eat and Slim was driving, so rather than let Marie yak his ear off he had decided to sit up front, with Scott. "So you think this is on the up-and-up?" Logan asked softly.

Piloting the 'Bird took most of his attention, which he'd thought was ideal. He hadn't expected Logan to plant himself in the co-pilot's seat and try to initiate conversation. "I don't know what you mean," Scott said flatly, eyes on his readouts. They were going to have to take a more northerly flight path than he'd hoped - too much unsettled air south of here.

"Been burned before." he said. "Probably nothing." he said, unsettled. If this was Jean and it was legit, Logan's world was about to get a lot more complicated. Moreso because the man next to him was her husband, whether he liked it or not.

"You've been burned before." Scott's voice was still level, but there was a barely audible snarl beneath the words. Why had he asked Logan along again? Like he wanted him there the first time he saw Jean in four months.

"Lots of people got burned." he corrected. "But yeah." He settled back and stared out of the canopy to the painfully blue sky. He was doing, he thought, a wonderful job of not rising to Scott's bait so far. "Should be a nice quick in-and-out." he said. "Or do you want a couple of days to say hello? The kid and I can go fuck off somewhere else. I hear Madripoor's nice." Actually, now that he thought about it, Madripoor would be a wonderful place to stay a few days. He just wished he knew why he thought so.

"Why don't we not make vacation plans until after we've got the objective achieved and not gotten caught by the Chinese?" Asshole.

"You really think the Chinese Army is going to stand between us and Jean?" he asked with amusement. "Get real."

Scott shot him an aggravated look. "We are not here to cause an international incident," he snapped, keeping his voice low - not that Marie wouldn't hear, of course. "So if you can't keep yourself under control, I'm going to ask Jean to drop-kick you into the Pacific. From Tibet."

Logan just grinned. "They'll be too busy raping the locals and trying to stay warm to harass us." Logan said with a grin. "You know, I don't think I've ever been to Tibet."

"This is why when you come along on missions, we don't let you talk," was Scott's cold response as he turned his attention back to his piloting.

Logan just barked out a laugh and kicked his feet up onto the control panel to lean back and get comfortable. "It's gonna be great to see her again." Logan mused.

"Wolverine? Please remove your feet from the controls of the supersonic aircraft." Scott's voice was absolutely level, but the unspoken 'you absolute fucking moron' came across loud and clear.

Logan left his feet just where they were for a few moments, just to yank Scott's chain, before removing them back to the floor. Then he patted himself down, looking for a smoke. He was feeling the urge, and it'd keep him from really getting up Scott's nose.

"And if you smoke in here, I'm going to put the plane on autopilot and throw you out the hatch." He had no patience for any of Logan's crap today. Logan needed to sit down, shut up, and punch whom he was told to punch. That was the only reason he was along.

Logan laughed. "You could try." he said, but left his smokes in his pocket - just where he'd left them originally. "You really think anyone's going to give us a hard time?"

"I'm not ruling anything out." He wouldn't know the tactical situation until they landed. His mind was racing, however, putting together the various bits and pieces Jean had given him, along with what he knew of the area in general... there was nothing wrong with starting with a proto-plan.

"If they do, we'll handle it." he said confidently. "We got the mobility, we got the power, and we've got the will." he added with a grin.

"And this would be why you're not in charge."

"Pussy." he retored pleasantly as he tilted his hat down over his eyes. "You really think a little Army post on the ass end of nowhere, guarding some absolutely harmless Tibetan monks, are going to pose any challenge to the three of us? Plus Jean? Get real."

Scott ignored him. It was bravado, and he didn't see any need to respond to it. He banked slowly to the north, keeping an eye on his screens.

It wasn't bravado, it was fact. But Logan let Scott's lack of reply slide - he was a worrier, and always would be. Logan was more of the confident type. This would be, healing factors aside, why Scott was blind in one eye and developing ulcers while paying off his therapist's Maserati while Logan slept like a baby.

"I expect you to keep your mind on the mission, when we land," Scott said after a few minutes of silence, his voice cutting. "And to avoid distractions like drooling over my wife."

Logan snorted under his hat. "Relax, Slim. We hit the turf and I am all business." It irritated him that he apparently had to defend himself on that particular topic to Scott, but even he realized that now was not the time to fight that war. "And you get to keep yours on the op as well, and avoid distractions like drooling all over the place." he parroted back to Scott. "Sauce for the goose, and all that."

"Because I'm always getting distracted from the task at hand. Right."

Logan snorted again and let it slide. Every time he'd slipped he'd either A) been at home or B) been under hostile telepathic influence. But in the interest of not getting blood on the deck plates before they went to go get Jean he decided to not make an issue of it. But he had to wonder whose performance files Scott had been reading. Apparently all the time away had softened his brain. "Kid's taking her sweet old time back there!" Logan said, raising his voice so that Marie could hear him clearly.

"You could always go back and see what's taking her," Scott said impassively. I wouldn't miss the company...

Logan took it for the spectacularly unsubtle hint it was. "All right, all right, I'm going." he said, adjusting his hat and standing up to head back. "Just can't talk to some people..." he muttered to himself as he moved out of the cockpit.