Scott and Jean-Paul - Backdated to the night of the 16th

[x-cynosure.livejournal.com]

Scott and Jean-Paul chat over the pool table.



"I think we need to fit them all out with tracking chips," was Scott's comment as he eyed the pool table. "I know, it sounds like a cliche, and supposedly it's been considered and discarded before... but I would really like to fit everyone out with tracking chips. And I'm not just talking about the kids." He sighed, leaning over the table. "I'm getting tired of people going missing. Even when they don't come back mangled."

"I don't know how well that would work. Anyone determined to hide a person would simply dig the chip out and then we have someone bleeding and missing. And that's not even getting into how some of us with sensitive systems might react." Jean-Paul shrugged. "But I can certainly see the appeal after all that's happened lately. Are the girls really all right?"

"They seem to me. I suppose I should focus on that." The highly uncharacteristic missed shot that followed that comment proved that Scott wasn't quite there yet. He made a face and stepped back from the table. "I also keep telling myself that it wasn't a kidnapping."

"Sounds as if the rest of you is calling bullshit on that particular observation. Two of our people were taken somewhere they did not consent to and could not get in touch. It tracks the same." Jean-Paul made his shot and circled the table again, eying the angles available to him.

"Zen," Scott muttered, not quite under his breath. "I'm zen about it. The sun rises in the east, Jean steals the blankets, and our people go missing. Irrefutable truths come in threes."

"Troubles are supposed to do the same. The universe is severely out of balance in that case. We need more truths." The Canadian missed his shot and picked up his drink again. "For example, Nathan's default state will
always be 'cranky'."

"Oh, you noticed? To be honest," Scott conceded, sizing up the table again, "I'm not much better. I just hide it more effectively. I don't know how Jean puts up with me muttering darkly in her head as much as I do - it's hard to keep that sort of thing off the link even if you're trying to be polite."

"Love helps us to endure things we would normally punt someone into the next town for. You could do worse, non?"

"Undoubtedly." He made his next shot easily. "I'm feeling stir-crazy. Time to kidnap Jean for the weekend sometime soon, I think."

"I think I've settled in fairly well myself." Jean-Paul lounged against his pool cue, shaking his head ruefully as Scott got back into the rhythm of the game. So much for his brief lead. "Today was strange, actually. Halfway through breakfast, I realized that I was looking forward to everything on my schedule."

"Well, that's a good sign," Scott said, more encouragingly, and actually cracked a brief grin. "Watch. One of these days you'll wake up and discover that you're happy."

"At which point, I will drop dead of shock," Jean-Paul said with a laugh. "So I had best be careful that it does not happen all at once. Still, something to work on."

"Are you finding that the teaching is filling up your time?" Scott asked, then looked slightly sheepish. "I'm still puzzling over this whole concept of free time."

"More or less. The classes themselves take up the mornings, then there is prep work most evenings, and working with the students outside of class. And then there is working out, sparring with Shiro, reading with Catseye, powers training with Noriko and all the rest of it. So...definitely more than less. I find I prefer it to having too much time on my hands."

"There's something to be said for professional satisfaction," Scott said after a moment, thoughtfully. "I really ought to spend some of my free time and finish my master's degree. I don't really have all that many more courses to go." He made a helpless gesture. "Other things keep coming up."

"Saving the world does keep you working the most wretched hours. But that is what correspondence courses are for." Jean-Paul contemplated the table again. "Why not? It seems like a decent plan. Never hurts to have something to fall back on, if you decide that this is not what you want for the rest of your life."

Scott just raised an eyebrow. "Yes," he said dryly. "I will bail on Charles. And next, I will raise the dead. The two are equally likely."

"The dead rose for you. Does that still count?" Jean-Paul's tone was easy. "I will even make the effort to put a more positive spin on it: perhaps the X-Men will not always be needed."

"Do you really expect that to happen in our lifetimes? Well," Scott conceded, almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, "there will be other groups that fill the X-Men's sort of role. Alpha Flight, Lakatos's new team in Hungary - at least they're good models. I suppose there'll be bad ones, too."

"Not really," Jean-Paul admitted. "People change very slowly. But I have been wrong before. Occasionally. I certainly would not mind it in this case."

"I have no natural optimism anymore," Scott said, remembering reflecting on that very thing in Italy. "It's a sad, sad state of affairs."