Scott and Jean (and Julian), Tuesday night

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Scott introduces Jean to his new summer project. Jean really likes the new summer project. Julian narrowly misses walking in at a really inopportune moment.


It wasn't every day that her husband swooped down on her in the infirmary and all but dragged her away from her job. "You don't have any patients and I'm sure Amelia's around here somewhere," was Scott's gleeful reasoning as he pulled her towards the elevator. "Isn't she usually? Hanging around in cloud-form waiting to scare the crap out of unwary students if the moment presents itself?"

"Yes, but we don't tell them that," Jean said, following along bemusedly. She actually had to tamp down on the link to keep his bubbly good mood from spiraling up into psychic feedback of glee, which meant she couldn't read him to find out what had him so happy. Luckily, he didn't seem at all inclined to hide it, so she could wait to find out.

"Do you have a scarf?" Scott asked suddenly as they stepped into the elevator. "You know, one of those ones you wear around your hair, in the wind. A scarf and old-fashioned sunglasses." The grin she got followed that comment was far, far broader and more purely happy than what the vast majority of people would ever expect to see on Scott Summers' face. "If you don't we need to get you some."

"You're picturing me as Audrey Hepburn..." Jean said, sounding confused. "I mean, I appreciate the compliment, but why...?"

"You'll see!" The elevator door opened and he steered her through. "You're probably going to laugh, though," Scott conceded, sounding a little more like himself. "And make comments about my inability to cope with having spare time." He was definitely steering her in the direction of the garage.

Which had not escaped Jean's attention. "If you've disassembled the bike just to put it back together again, I'm going to mock you."

"Oh, no. Definitely haven't disassembled the bike." He shut up, though continued to grin the rest of the way to the garage. "Close your eyes," he finally said, leading her in through the door. "I want to introduce you to someone. I'm probably going to be spending nearly as much time with her as I am with you this summer. But I know you're into sharing."

Jean obligingly shut her eyes and followed where he led. "Glad to hear the bike's in one p..." she started, but the sentence trailed off as she opened her eyes and saw The Car. Jean's eyes widened and she let go of his hands to go walk slowly around the (admittedly old and battered and yet still so, so shiny) convertible. It was a few moments before she looked up, but when she did she was grinning wickedly. "So... when you're done refurbishing, do I get this one or Baby? Cause I want this one."

"Okay, so, who else do you think I would be restoring a very hot 1949 Alfa Romeo for beside my even hotter wife?" He'd been hoping she'd react like that. Oh, he'd had no doubt that he could have found someone to pawn it off on, once he was done - the whole point for him was the actual restoring of the car, after all - but so much the better if it stayed in the family afterwards.

"This is an excellent summer project you have found for yourself," Jean said, transferring her gaze back to the car and running her hands along the sides, appreciating it's elegant lines. "And you know you've just given me tacit permission to go shopping and buy lots of little pillbox hats and vintage jackets, right? And the requisite scarf and movie star shades."

"You, looking like a 40s movie star? Oh dear God no. However will I cope." The mental images were all kinds of wonderful. "I got it for a steal," Scott said, coming over and running a hand down the hood. "It's in pretty bad shape, really. But at least it shouldn't be too hard finding parts."

"You know, if I didn't hold a spare full time job your summer projects would make me feel all slothful..." Jean grinned, then caught her hand in his sleeve and pulled him close for a little kiss.

"I like to keep busy. A bored me is a scary thing."

"I don't know," Jean said, smiling faintly. "When you're bored you get... creative." This time the kiss was not exactly 'little'.

"Mmm." It was all he could manage for the moment. When she finally let him up for air, he grinned at her rakishly. "You know, it really doesn't have much of a backseat. Definite drawback."

"Possibly something which should have been considered before purchase," Jean agreed, sliding her arms around his waist. "Not that I think this would stop you if you were really determined..."

"It has a hood?" Scott volunteered cheerfully. "A very-" A pause, to kiss her. "-very-" Another kiss. "-sturdy hood." No one's coming, are they?

Nope, all's quiet. "Mmmmm, see... what I mean? Creative." And this kiss stole what remaining breath he had.

I'll take your word for it... And really, they'd been so careful for what seemed like forever, about doing this in semi-public locales, and there were times that caution was just too much of a pain in the ass.

My word is my bond. Or, wait, no, your tie is usually my bond. And then Jean became very, very distracted.

---

"Okay. Cross the garage off the list. Again." A pause. "Woo."

Jean was still catching her breath, head collapsed against Scott's chest, although she shifted over slightly to get away from the buttons - the need to keep at least a few clothes on was definitely a downside. Basically the only downside, as far as Jean was concerned, though. "Well, it'd been a while," she finally said, looking up to steal another kiss.

"Do we need to remake the list? I think we do." Something very close to a snicker escaped Scott post-kiss. "Charles's desk still being the ultimate holy grail. One of these days we'll get up the nerve."

"The problem with Charles' desk," Jean said, finally sliding off the hood of the car and sliding her skirt back into place, "is that unlike that memorable time the cop caught us in the park, I can't make Charles forget. Or drop the charges."

The door from the mansion opened with a creak and clear footsteps rang out across the treated cement floor. Julian was on his way outside to take a quick jog in the cool March air and cutting through the garage happened to be the quickest way out. He was whistling to himself, albeit poorly, which stopped abruptly when he rounded the corner to find two of the mansion staff on the hood of a roadster.

Keller suppressed the urge to blush for a moment when he figured out what they'd probably been doing in here, alone and in the low light. "Sorry, I was just...um...."

The key thing in these situations - especially when you weren't actually caught in the act - was to keep a straight face, finish up whatever needed doing up, and pretend that everything was fine. "Evening, Julian," Scott said cheerfully as he finished buttoning his shirt. "Nice night, isn't it?" It took a great deal of self-control not to burst out laughing. Thanks for the early warning, Red, he sent down the link.

Hmph. You must not think very highly of yourself if you thought I could have kept my wits about me through that, Jean shot back. "Julian, hello," she said with a smile and one last tug on the edge of her skirt to straighten it. "I'd been meaning to find you at some point, actually. Nathan mentioned you'd asked him to teach you to fly and I wanted to warn you off picking up any of his more obvious bad habits. Like crashing in the lake."

Julian simply nodded, trying to edge toward the door and end the slightly awkward interaction. "No water landings, got it. I'll aim for the kitchen," he gave her a slight chuckle and one of the classic Keller ever-charm smiles to try to pretend as if he'd not walked in on anything at all. "Um, nice car?" he asked, not intending it as a question until the last second when he was asking himself if he needed to be saying something like that which could only further prolong this conversation.

"Not really, but it will be," Scott said brightly. "Come take a look at it in about... oh, four, five months." The edging towards the door was just the tiniest bit more entertaining than it should have been. "I mean," he continued with a cheerful smile and a perfectly straight face, "we do know that the frame is sturdy..."

The little snort of laughter which escaped Jean was entirely unavoidable - the whole situation was hysterical, particularly given Julian's internal 'get away get away get away' monologue and, it had to be allowed, she was on a bit of an endorphin high. The fact that she managed just the single laugh was a real testament to Jean's self control. "Have a nice run," she said, after managing to quell the giggles which threatened. "The weather's lovely."

"Yes, thank you, Dr. Grey," Julian, not looking where he was going- though he did have a good idea where the door was- suddenly found himself tripping over a carelessly placed toolbox on the floor and stumbling backwards. He fell to his side, able to catch himself with his telekinesis before hitting the cold, hard floor. He quickly sprung back up, "I'm-okay!" He held up a hand to make his point and quickly turned, heading out the side door and into the solitude of the night.