Jean and Scott in the Danger Room

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

Jean's been a leeeeeeetle stressed. Luckily, her husband has a cure.



"All done with her, Amelia?" It wasn't uncommon for Scott to show up at the end of one of Jean's shifts to claim her, just in case she 'found' any work that would keep her in the infirmary for longer. Amelia hadn't even finished nodding before Scott was taking Jean by the arm, smiling very oddly. "Good, because we have an appointment in the Danger Room."

"We do?" Jean asked, cocking a look at Scott but letting him steer her out of the medlab as she tossed a quick wave over her shoulder. "I checked my schedule this morning and didn't see anything..." Not that there was really all that much space in her schedule these days, and she was seriously starting to hate summers. At least classes provided a regular schedule for the crazy. Plus, the kids couldn't get into as much trouble when they had homework.

"Mmhmm." Scott's expression was almost angelically calm as he led her down the hall. "And I used the special codes. The 'do not enter unless you want Cyclops to kick your ass' codes. So we're not going to be interrupted."

Jean's eyebrows rose at that and there was definitely a hint of a grin tugging at her lips, something which hadn't been there that much this summer. "And what, pray tell, are you planning on us not being interrupted during?"

"Sparring," he drawled. "What did you think I was suggesting?" He was very carefully not looking at her.

The snort was decidedly not ladylike as she pulled open the door to the locker room. "Right, you absolutely do not have an ulterior motive. I'm sure."

"Oh, not at all." He paused, grinning at her. "I'm already dressed," he said, unnecessarily. "See you in there."

It didn't take long for Jean to shuck her work clothes and slip into exercise gear, although she did take the time to warm up properly - she wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if Scott was planning something sneaky the moment she stepped out. He'd walled his end of the link and it took less than a heartbeat for Jean to do the same before she stepped into the Danger Room. Today was not a day for taking the easy way.

Scott did not, as matter of fact, jump her as soon as she walked through the door. He was standing in the midst of the landscape he'd programmed, basically a replica of a wooded chunk of the grounds. "I thought of terrain that had a little more up and down to it," he said, still wearing that vaguely unnerving grin, "but we both remember what happened the last time vertical and me mixed in the Danger Room. And that is not what I had in mind for today."

"So, you're saying I should avoid breaking you?" Jean asked, smirking slightly as she came closer, although it was definitely more bravado than anything else. Powers-free there was no question that Scott was better at hand-to-hand. Jean was a little faster, especially after all the damage he'd done to his knees, and had a bit more reach but he had power on his side if she wasn't enhancing her blows, not to mention he was just better tactically. Still, the terrain might actually be a step in her favor.

"I would never presume to tell you any such thing." Scott's real eye was dancing. "Yours to have and to hold - and to smack around from time to time."

"You only say that because you get off on me being all Amazonian," Jean said, moving into a ready stance. "Occasionally I wonder if I shouldn't be concerned that you get all hot and bothered by the fact that I can bench press a bus with my mind."

"Nonsense. It just means I'm secure in my masculinity." He lunged at her, impressively fast for a man with a still-healing knee.

"Well, your masculinity is a good thing to be secure in. Also impressed with." She darted sideways, away from the attack without getting out of range as she swung a punch towards his blind side.

He'd anticipated the punch even as she started to shift her weight, and managed to both sidestep it and catch her wrist, pulling her in and off balance. One hand darted out to turn her face towards him, and he stole a quick, hard kiss.

She knew the kiss wouldn't distract him, not really, but maybe just enough as she turned into the pull, dropping into a controlled fall and yanking him off balance after her, tossing him over her hip. And if the pin she had him in wasn't as effective as it might have been, it also involved rather more full body contact that it might have actually needed.

"... I totally asked for that," was Scott's slightly breathless reply.

"You did," Jean agreed, and kissed him again just as hard before shoving back to her feet and stepping back out of range while he got back up. "Again?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

Scott eyed her. The tension in her posture was still there, and the edgy, weary sharpness on the link had softened only fractionally. "Hell yes," he said amiably. And possibly a few times times on top of that. He made a brief, 'bring it on' gesture, accompanied by a smirk.

Jean launched herself at him, the move tellingly similar to that which Scott had opened with - telling because she was almost never that direct when she wasn't angry. Indeed, where Scott's attack had been fairly straightforward, Jean dropped just before she got in range, lashing out with a kick that would take his legs right out from under him.

He turned the fall into a moderately graceful roll, guessing that she'd come in on the right - correctly, it turned out. It brought him just out of range at the follow-up punch that should have landed in his jaw, because of course she'd known he wouldn't stay down. She overextended just a little, trying to compensate, and Scott took full advantage of the opening.

It was Jean's turn to be pinned, wrists caught in his tight grip. Jean couldn't help the slow, seductive smile (or perhaps she didn't want to) before she suddenly yanked her hands back, gasping slightly as he collapsed on to her. But it was only a moment before a sharp, clever twist of her hips set them rolling and she took advantage of the brief advantage to set her teeth into the skin where his shoulder met his neck in something which had only a passing resemblance to an actual bite.

"Now, just... how am I suppose to concentrate on kicking your ass?" Scott said in something very close to a growl.

"That's your problem," Jean said, smirking. "I mean, they do say 'all's fair in love and war', right?"

"And so which do we call this?" Another roll reversed their positions, and he pinned her hands over her head before leaning in for another hard kiss.

"Better be love," Jean replied when he let her, more than a little breathless. "Because if you use a move like that in the field I really will kick your ass."

"I make a point not to kiss strange women in the field. Never know when they might turn out to be a blue, scaly bitch." He shifted off her, rolling back to his feet and offering her a hand.

"A sensible precaution." Jean paused briefly before accepting the hand up, although whether it was because she didn't trust him not to press the advantage or because she was contemplating using it as a lever to get a solid blow in would have been hard to say. But, other than stepping rather closer in to his personal space than was strictly necessary she didn't do anything untoward and was soon standing opposite him again, hands up. "When you're ready..."

Time to get serious, Scott judged. She still hadn't quite relaxed. He lunged at her again, and they fell into a fast, regular rhythm of strike and block. Scott was hard-pressed to find his way past her defenses, but at least the same could be said about her. And it was working quite well in terms of building up a sweat.

The straightforward give and take was at least good at keeping her mind off things, particularly after Scott had gotten a pair of good shots in on her ribs. She'd paid him back almost immediately with a body blow that had gotten him to back off but the pain was the good sort of physical, easy to define pain. It had a source, it could be categorized and dealt with. "Have I mentioned that this summer has sucked?" she asked seemingly out of the blue, although given that it was the first thing she'd said in several minutes and was immediately followed up by a roundhouse kick that might well have given Scott a concussion had he not blocked it were pretty good indications that it wasn't entirely without preamble, at least in her head.

"Mmm," he said, straightening and coming back at her with a quick flurry of blows, most of which she blocked. The glancing blow to her jaw that snuck through sent her reeling backwards briefly, but the flicker in her eyes as she straightened was reassuring that the plan was working as... well, planned. "All work and trauma and no play makes Jeanie a frustrated girl."

The nickname earned him a glare and a muttered, "... I'll show you frustrated..." and then there were no words as she pressed the attack, pushing him back across the room and giving him no real chance to strike back.

She was pushing so hard that he had his back to the disguised wall of the Danger Room before he could think about how it might be a good idea to mind the nicknames. Then her fist landed in his midsection and he nearly doubled over, gasping for air and trying not to laugh at the same time.

"D-Damn, woman-"

Jean's fingers threaded into his hair and while she didn't exactly yank him back upright there was a definite tug and then she was pressing him back in a much more pleasant manner, body aligned against him perfectly as she breathed into his ear, "So, you think playing might relieve my... frustration?"

He shifted as much as he dared, a strange little smile tugging at his lips. "I think," he murmured, "that there's a part of you that's worried that you're becoming your job. Jobs. And you've worked, and fought, and done everything that Phoenix and Doctor Grey-Summers needed to do... but the leathers are getting stifling and the lab coat is swallowing you whole. And the oh-so-efficient hairdo," he went on, freeing a hand and reached up to pull out a strategic pin so that red hair cascaded down over her shoulders, "is really starting to hurt
your head."

Jean couldn't help but sigh as she felt him run his fingers through her hair. "Yeah, well, you know me too well," she said, then tilted his face towards her so she could kiss him thoroughly.

Scott let himself enjoy the kiss properly, as well - before an extremely sneaky move on his part landed her back on the floor again, him on top. "I like it much better down here," he murmured in her ear. "You can get so domineering when walls are involved..."

"It's the height. I've the advantage on my feet. But does this mean it's your turn to be domineering?" She shifted slightly in a way which had absolutely nothing to do with trying to throw him off.

"Mmmm... no," Scott said, struggling to keep a straight face in the face of... well, more than one challenge. "And if you cheat," he went on, hands sliding under her shirt, "I'll get you back for it. You'll never know when it's coming..."

"That somehow manages to sound nothing at all like a threat," Jean murmured, arching into his touch. "Makes me think I should cheat..." Her arms moved around him, hands settling on his hips to pull him closer before reaching up for a kiss.

Aren't you glad I made sure the control booth was locked out, too? he sent down the link, mischievously. Another part of him was reflecting, not for the first-time, that loose-fitting exercise gear was the ideal clothing for moments like this. If there had to be clothing, of course. Imagine trainees wandering in, getting an eyeful...

#Oh, you know they'd all do it too, if they could.# Jean sounded amused, and there wasn't a hint of her earlier stress in either her tone or her body language.

Rank hath its privileges, Scott said, and decided that now was the time for focusing on things other than banter. Just because they could carry on whole conversations at times like this didn't mean he intended to allow Jean the level of concentration to do so.

#Privileges should involve less clothing now.#