Scott and Yvette, Sunday afternoon

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Yvette finds a certain cat running loose, which leads to a conversation with Scott.


“The silence that is in the starry sky,
The sleep that is among the lonely hills...”

Yvette mouthed the words silently to herself as she walked, volume of Wordsworth open in her hands. Walking and reading was possibly a hazardous occupation in the school, where people ran around at breakneck pace, but she wanted to return the book and get another, and she was almost done. She turned the page, glanced up to make sure she wasn't about to run into a wall, and then blinked as a small 'mew' came from somewhere around her feet. Looking down, she found herself meeting glances with a black and white cat, eyeing her somewhat imperiously.

"Hello," Yvette said with a slight brightening of her eyes as she crouched down, book balanced on her lap. "Are you to be lost?"

Des eyed her, her tail lashing back and forth, and then slowing. She raised a paw, pawing at the air and giving Yvette an appealing look.

Yvette giggled. "Oh, you are to be wanting me to be picking you up?" she asked, a teasing note in her voice. Automatically, she checked her gloves and sleeves, and tucked her book under her arm. "To be coming on, then," she said, scooping up the cat with those over-large hands. "Maybe we are to be finding where you are living?"

Des started to purr roughly half a second after she was settled in Yvette's arms, with a definite edge of Why walk when you can be carried? to her sleepy-eyed expression.

The soft weight and the purring of the animal in her arms was comforting, and Yvette hummed a little under her breath, one of her mother's old lullabies from when she was very small. "You are being the very nice kitty," she told Des, heading for the stairs - the cat had to have some from one of the living quarters, either one of the other students, or one of the staff. "I am wondering what your name is?"

"Her name is Desdemona," Scott said as he reached the bottom of the stairs, "and she had better be a very repentant cat right now." He gave the cat a stern look and Yvette a brief, but warm smile. "Thanks for finding her. She's supposed to stay in the suite but she occasionally slips out."

"She is being your cat, Mr. Summers? She is very pretty." Yvette giggled again as Des purred louder. "And I think she is knowing this, yes?"

"Yes. She has absolutely no issues with self-esteem," Scott said, then gave the cat a mock-glare. "Just one with dander! That's why I keep her in the suite," he explained to Yvette. "To spare the people with allergies. Want to come upstairs with her?" His expression turned slightly amused. "I think she's very comfortable where she is right now, and I don't want to get scratched, trying to reclaim her."

"Oh, yes please." Yvette hadn't wanted to relinquish her burden just yet, so comfortable was Des, to judge from the purring. "I am liking the cats, but it is being difficult to be having the pet in our suite. There are people who are not having the comfortable with the pets."

"You'll have to come up and visit her sometimes," Scott said, stepping back and gesturing for Yvette to precede him to the stairs. "She loves attention, and Jean and I are so busy that she doesn't get nearly enough of it."

"I would be liking that," Yvette replied. "Sometimes I am being making the visit to Shamu Junior, and we are playing." She tilted her head at Scott. "Maybe, when you and Dr. Grey are being busy, I could be helping for to feed her? When you are being, how you say? Saving the world?"

Scott's face lit up in a smile at her earnestness. "I think that might be a very good arrangement, actually," he said as they reached the top of the stairs. "It's just down here," he said, directing her to the open door.

"I would be liking that, very much. And you are to be the good cat, yes?" Yvette told Des, who blinked at her. "No more to be running away and making Mr. Summers be worried."

Des tilted her head back at an unnatural angle and gazed at Scott, who just laughed. "She lives to cause trouble. Can I get you a drink or anything, Yvette?" he said as they stepped into the living room of the suite. "In Des's defense," he went on, "she was very good company when I was having a very hard time. She used to wake me up from nightmares. She'd sit on my pillow and pat my cheek."

"Yes, please," Yvette said, to the offer of a drink. She hugged Des a little closer, and then bent to let her down. "Mr. Summers, can I be asking the question? About the X-Men?"

There was fresh orange juice. That would do. "Of course," he said as he poured a glass for Yvette. "What would you like to know?"

"Is it being very difficult, to be the X-Man? I know there is being much training in the room that is being changing, where we are having the laser tag game."

Scott made a thoughtful face as he returned the jug of orange juice to the fridge before he came over. "I'd say it is, yes," he admitted. "Why don't you sit down, Yvette? This is one of those complicated conversations." He gave her a crooked smile, extending the glass of orange juice. "Besides, if you sit down, Des will probably come find your lap."

Yvette nodded, and went to sit on the couch. Her feet swung a little, as
she was too short to reach the ground, and if she did her usual crouch, Des wouldn't have a place to sit. "Thank you, Mr. Summers." she said, taking the glass carefully between her open palms and taking a sip. "I am thinking that one day, maybe I am to be the X-Man. When I am to be old enough."

Scott lowered himself into the armchair, smiling again. Des immediately wandered over and hopped up onto the couch with Yvette, headbutting the girl's arm and purring. "Why do you want to be an X-Man?" he asked thoughtfully.

Yvette put her glass carefully down on the coffee table, and let Des climb into her lap. "I am seeing, what you are being doing," she said, slowly, trying to put the words together in English. "And it is being the important thing, the helping thing. You are to be having the powers that are making you different, and you are to be using them the best way to be making things to be safe, to be stopping the bad people. I... I am thinking I would be to be helping." She looked up at Scott, blank eyes glowing softly. "I am wanting to be making things to be safe, like you are to be making things safe for us."

Scott smiled again, an edge of sadness to it. "I'll be honest, Yvette. One of the reasons we do what we do is that we hope, at some time in the future, that the mutants who come after us can live their lives as they choose. Without having to fight. But," he said, "I think that day's a long way off. If you still want to do this, when you're old enough... I think we'd be happy to have you."

There was the barest hint of movement at the corners of her mouth, a very slight dimpling of her cheeks. "There is always being the need to be making the things change," she told him, voice soft. "But it is good that there are always to be the people to be making the changes."