RP for Kitty
Logan still wasn't back.
The day after his conversation with Emma, Scott sat in his office, fiddling with spread sheets, wondering whether this time, Wolverine really had left them for good. That was stupid -- this was just Logan, this was what he did -- but, Scott realized, this wasn't the first time he had sat in here worrying about the man's ( Read more... )
The day after his conversation with Emma, Scott sat in his office, fiddling with spread sheets, wondering whether this time, Wolverine really had left them for good. That was stupid -- this was just Logan, this was what he did -- but, Scott realized, this wasn't the first time he had sat in here worrying about the man's ( Read more... )
She walked in at his reply. His desk was neat, but not overly so. Orderly but not sterile. Kitty smiled a little at that. It was pretty much how she thought of Scott. Orderly and practical.
She sat down across from him, kicking a leg up on the arm of the chair. "Not interrupting anything, am I?" she asked, waving a hand at the computer. "I just need a minute, if that works?"
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He had no idea what Emma had told her, if anything, since last night. If she hadn't repeated any of their conversation, Kitty might be feeling guilty and if she had. . .God, Scott had no idea. He didn't know Kitty well enough to have a clue how she would deal with a situation like this. Hell, he didn't know situations like this well enough to deal with a situation like this.
"Sure," he said. "Go ahead." His voice was clear, professional, revealing nothing. He hoped. Kitty's leg was swinging against the arm of the chair. He tried not to stare at it.
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Lockheed flew in, grumbling a bit, his atonal pissed-off voice a little loud.
"Well," Kitty said as her pet settled across her shoulders, "next time don't eat what Victor gives you. They think you're a science experiment half the time, and you encourage them." She scratched under his chin absently. "Stop hanging out in the lunchroom so much, y'know?"
She returned her attention to Scott with a slight shrug of apology. "Sorry," she said. "Anyway, it's Noriko. Surge? We had an incident in training this morning, and I think you should talk to her."
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He picked up an invoice off the desk, didn't even know what it was for. He stared without reading it, hoping his relief didn't show. "Sure, absolutely," he said, "Is that all?"
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Kitty sat there, kicking her foot. Lockheed stuck his head out over her shoulder, a small wisp of smoke drifting towards the ceiling.
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"I assumed," he said, "that the information would be in the incident report. Which you do not appear to have brought with you." Then he leaned forward, propping his elbows on his desk, and said, "In the future, if you're going to try and sleep with my girlfriend, don't come in here and be smug about it."
Hmm. That wasn't what he had thought he was going to say. He wondered if Logan was contagious, like mono.
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Lockheed stood, very slowly, on her shoulders. He spread his wings, drawing himself up to his full height.
"Noriko Ashida," Kitty said slowly, "is a very good combat leader. One of her team, Cessily, had a traumatic incident and almost got hurt. Nori feels guilty. I think she could use some advice on leadership, and the difference between responsibility and guilt."
Kitty stood up, Lockheed balanced perfectly in place.
"For some goddam reason," she said evenly, "I thought you might be able to give her some pointers. Steer her the right way." Kitty stepped quickly towards the desk and slammed both her fists, knuckles-down, against the top. The noise of impact was startlingly loud and Lockheed hissed. Kitty leaned forward on her fisted hands. "But since you can't tell the difference between my problems in relationship choices and your guilt for finally necking with Logan? I'll look somewhere else for advice."
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"You talked to Logan?" He spoke quietly, not moving, looking up at Kitty who was clearly angry. (But that was all right; that was what he had wanted. An angry response would be an honest one. He realized that now, although when he had spoken, it had been unconsidered instinct. Good tactics. Not being an asshole. Right, Summers).
Other questions rose in his mind -- "When's he coming back?" "How'd the mission go?" and of course the pathetically junior-high-ish "Did he say anything about me?"
Scott didn't ask any of those questions, just crossed his arms, leaned back in the chair to show he wasn't intimidated, and said, "I don't know what you mean by 'finally.' Or 'bad relationship choices.' There's nothing wrong with Emma."
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There was nothing to say to his other remarks. She was not going to fight with him about Emma. She was not. Kitty turned to go. "C'mon, dragon," she said to the irate Lockheed.
"Don't forget about Noriko, your student who could use some guidance," she called over her shoulder.
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His breath was fast, and he was starting to put things together.
"You and Emma obviously had a conversation about me." He could feel his face starting to burn with the embarrassment of it. He hadn't, he realized, actually told Emma that the conversation was private, but he hadn't thought he needed to tell her.
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"Of course we talked about you," Kitty said. "She said she told you what had happened. In the pool." She knew she was blushing now, the tips of her ears bright red. "Which was my fault," she added quickly. "But she mentioned you and Logan had some sort of kissing-related event. That's all."
She glared at him for a moment. "So, right, I was wrong. And I'm sorry. And Emma said you weren't angry with her or me, but clearly she was mistaken." Just that morning Emma had come in to her room and reassured Kitty and said Scott was okay with it, and Kitty had ended up kissing the woman on a second occasion. "I'll tell her it won't happen again, I guess, but you'll have to fight with her about how she thought it was cool."
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He relaxed -- well, tried to relax -- and stepped toward her, running a hand nervously through her hair. "Yes. I said it was. . .cool isn't the word I'd use but, at the end of the day, you're both adults and I guess it's not any of my business. I just -- when you came in here, you seemed kind of defensive and I --" He looked away. "Never mind. It's not you. This whole thing started because I'm such a fucking headcase, and I'm just being true to form. I'll talk to Nori and you can forget I flipped out on you." He stepped back to his desk, then remembered something and turned to her. "She shouldn't have told you that about Logan. That was extremely personal."
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pfui
The dragon flapped out the door, leaving a faint smell of smoke.
Kitty looked at Scott. "Try to get Nori to see that she's one of the rare few who can stand making the hard decisions. She's a good kid. She's going to be a really good X-Man. And I think she looks up to you because her power is also controlled by technology. She wears those gauntlets with something like pride, because she's got you as a role model." She shrugged.
"I'm sorry about, about this little, ah, fight."
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"Don't apologize," he said quietly. "I was trying to provoke you. I don't even know why, and. . .I shouldn't get on your case because I haven't communicated with Emma. None of this is about you at all, although --"
He looked her in the eye, and swallowed before he said. "I'm sorry, sometimes, that I don't know you better. That would make this easier -- or maybe not." He mentally ran through the gamut of possible gestures, then offered her a hand -- like he was selling her a car, he belatedly thought. "Thanks for telling me about Nori. You're really on the ball about that stuff. Someone needs to be."
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Well, that's kind of between him and Logan, and him and Emma, I guess, she thought, shaking his hand one last, firm, time and letting go ( ... )
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He went to the computer to pull up Noriko's record; it was something to do, and Kitty was right -- helping these kids was a hell of a lot more important than the staff's own interpersonal dramas. He paged through the file and tried not to think about the conversation. It was strange, though, the hints he'd gotten from Kitty. "You and Logan -- finally. . ." "If we knew each other better, we'd fight." It was a reminder that as the team leader, was surrounded by people who noticed him, talked about him, thought they knew him -- maybe did know him -- in ways that he wasn't sure of himself. It was all kind of weird.
Logan still wasn't back.
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