Parallelograms (the Both Followed and Led Remix) [X-Men; Scott Summers]
Title: Parallelograms (the Both Followed and Led Remix)
Author: musamea
Summary: After Alkali Lake, life goes on at the mansion. Ten drabbles on how Scott's doesn't.
Rating: PG-13 for language.
Fandom: slightly AU X-Men movieverse, with comics backstory thrown in. (The X-Men belong to Marvel and its affiliates. "Eric's Song" -- full lyrics here -- belongs to Vienna Teng.) Many thanks to resolute for the beta!
Warnings: none
Spoilers: occurs between X2 and X3, and assumes knowledge through the former
Title, Author and URL of original story: The Triangles Sequence by plotbunnytohma, linked here.
I. "I measure the time and I stand amazed"
It's been five months, two weeks, and three days since the waters of Alkali Lake closed over Jean Grey's glowing body. If asked, Scott can narrow the time passed down to hours and minutes.
No one asks. And Scott's not sure if he's relieved or utterly pissed that everyone else seems to be moving on with the greatest of ease. Even Ororo, even the Professor.
Sometimes he hates them for it. That they can pick up the pieces, teach the classes, live the lives that she gave them, without any lingering grief.
Mostly he hates himself for even thinking that.
II. "my hand is outstretched toward the damp of the haze"
He has more trouble sleeping than he'll admit. He's taken to drinking two cups of coffee, black, in the mornings, to combat his nights of fidgeting and tossing to and fro before he finally lapses into blurry, unsettled dreams.
Walls of water collapse, once, again. Jet engines hum beneath his feet. Steady old Blackbird, having failed once, she does not fail again when Jean's power lifts her. Jean shuts him in, over and over. Cuts their telepathic link. Sometimes, in his dreams, he blasts out the exit hatch or the cockpit. Anything to reach her.
Anything to die with her.
III. "and of course I forgive"
He and Logan come to an uneasy truce. They must. Scott has always maintained that even a mansion isn't big enough to contain feuds between faculty, students, or teammates, and he's damned if he'll make an exception to that rule, even for himself.
He still thinks Logan's a bastard, most days. She chose you, as if there was ever any real question about it.
Except that sometimes he wonders if there might have been. He's never been told what went on during his captivity in Stryker's base. And he's never asked.
He's not sure if that makes him a coward.
IV. "I've seen how you live"
He can tell from the moment he sets eyes on him that Remy LeBeau is going to be trouble.
He knows the type -- eyes with a promise of sin, a self-satisfied smirk, sensuality oozing from every pore. This Gambit kid reminds him of John, and of Logan, but he knows immediately that Xavier's newest student is about ten times more dangerous than either.
Logan, at least, has some scruples. And John was always passion without an outlet.
Rogue looks like Christmas has arrived early. Bobby's fists are clenched.
Scott doesn't miss it when the temperature drops a few degrees.
V. "like a phoenix you rise from the ashes"
The drama between Rogue, Bobby, and Remy looks so small to him. They're just kids, he thinks.
But he and Jean had just been kids, too, when they first got together. And Warren had been the third vertex of their triangle then, and it had all seemed so terribly important. Some things don't change, much. The little drama that played out when Logan came to the mansion was just another spin on an old, old story.
The roles of this play don't change. Nor does the plot. Only the characters.
And he watches as his students take up their parts.
VI. "you pick up the pieces"
He doesn't know what it means that the good guy loses, this time.
He's sitting with Rogue on a bench in the backyard, listening to the whole, messy story unravel from her lips, and it's suddenly hard to remember that analogues don't create truth. That Remy isn't Logan, and he isn't Bobby, and Jean wasn't Rogue.
He hears himself telling her to follow her heart, to do what makes her happy.
She says he sounds like a bad chick flick, but he knows his words have given her the absolution she seeks to do what she would have done anyway.
VII. "and the ghosts in the attic / they never quite leave"
Scott remembers a time when he'd been considered the bad boy. By all counts, Warren and Jean had everything going for them. He the scion of high society, she the daughter of an ancient and respected name. All Scott had to offer was a refurbished Harley and a devilish grin.
And she'd picked him. The bad boy who drove too fast and fucked her long and hard.
But somehow he'd turned into the Boy Scout, seeking to further Xavier's dream.
Maybe Jean had grown tired of being with the good guy. Heaven knows, Scott gets tired of himself sometimes, too.
VIII. "strange how we know each other"
"Beast," Scott says, leaning against the doorway to Jean's -- no, Hank's lab, now.
"Battle names in a non-combat situation, Cyclops?" Hank asks, looking up from his microscope. "I have a premonition that this will not end well."
"Ha. The Professor wants us to go on a camping trip."
"'Us'?"
"You. Me. Remy, Bobby, and Logan."
Hank raises an eyebrow at the last name. "That sounds rather… foolhardy." Scott knows he means, Will you be able to handle it?
He's tired of walking on eggshells. "That's why you're coming along."
"Oh?"
"To keep us from killing each other. Good luck."
IX. "there's a distance erased with the greatest of ease"
Sometimes Scott wonders, perversely, why it seems like Logan is the only one who understands him.
They've been on this goddamnstupididioticfuckme trip for four days, and a look of murderous rage has crossed Logan's face six times. Usually directed at Remy or Bobby. Never at him. Funny that Scott feels the same way.
"Do you think she would have been happy?" he asks Logan, later. With you?
Logan calls it a shitty question. "'Course she would."
But Scott's used to parsing beneath certainty and he hears what Logan doesn't say. But she was happier with you. It doesn't sound condescending.
X. "strange how certain the journey"
Scott.
Her voice has calling his name for three days. Every waking moment until he thinks he might be going crazy. Though if crazy means he can hear Jean, maybe it's not a bad thing.
Finally, he stuffs some shirts and his visor into a backpack, snags the keys to his bike, and takes off. His words to Logan are calculated to throw the other man off, to distract him from asking where Scott might be going, and for what reason.
He's glad his students are in good hands.
He revs his bike and points her north, toward Alkali Lake.
Author: musamea
Summary: After Alkali Lake, life goes on at the mansion. Ten drabbles on how Scott's doesn't.
Rating: PG-13 for language.
Fandom: slightly AU X-Men movieverse, with comics backstory thrown in. (The X-Men belong to Marvel and its affiliates. "Eric's Song" -- full lyrics here -- belongs to Vienna Teng.) Many thanks to resolute for the beta!
Warnings: none
Spoilers: occurs between X2 and X3, and assumes knowledge through the former
Title, Author and URL of original story: The Triangles Sequence by plotbunnytohma, linked here.
I. "I measure the time and I stand amazed"
It's been five months, two weeks, and three days since the waters of Alkali Lake closed over Jean Grey's glowing body. If asked, Scott can narrow the time passed down to hours and minutes.
No one asks. And Scott's not sure if he's relieved or utterly pissed that everyone else seems to be moving on with the greatest of ease. Even Ororo, even the Professor.
Sometimes he hates them for it. That they can pick up the pieces, teach the classes, live the lives that she gave them, without any lingering grief.
Mostly he hates himself for even thinking that.
II. "my hand is outstretched toward the damp of the haze"
He has more trouble sleeping than he'll admit. He's taken to drinking two cups of coffee, black, in the mornings, to combat his nights of fidgeting and tossing to and fro before he finally lapses into blurry, unsettled dreams.
Walls of water collapse, once, again. Jet engines hum beneath his feet. Steady old Blackbird, having failed once, she does not fail again when Jean's power lifts her. Jean shuts him in, over and over. Cuts their telepathic link. Sometimes, in his dreams, he blasts out the exit hatch or the cockpit. Anything to reach her.
Anything to die with her.
III. "and of course I forgive"
He and Logan come to an uneasy truce. They must. Scott has always maintained that even a mansion isn't big enough to contain feuds between faculty, students, or teammates, and he's damned if he'll make an exception to that rule, even for himself.
He still thinks Logan's a bastard, most days. She chose you, as if there was ever any real question about it.
Except that sometimes he wonders if there might have been. He's never been told what went on during his captivity in Stryker's base. And he's never asked.
He's not sure if that makes him a coward.
IV. "I've seen how you live"
He can tell from the moment he sets eyes on him that Remy LeBeau is going to be trouble.
He knows the type -- eyes with a promise of sin, a self-satisfied smirk, sensuality oozing from every pore. This Gambit kid reminds him of John, and of Logan, but he knows immediately that Xavier's newest student is about ten times more dangerous than either.
Logan, at least, has some scruples. And John was always passion without an outlet.
Rogue looks like Christmas has arrived early. Bobby's fists are clenched.
Scott doesn't miss it when the temperature drops a few degrees.
V. "like a phoenix you rise from the ashes"
The drama between Rogue, Bobby, and Remy looks so small to him. They're just kids, he thinks.
But he and Jean had just been kids, too, when they first got together. And Warren had been the third vertex of their triangle then, and it had all seemed so terribly important. Some things don't change, much. The little drama that played out when Logan came to the mansion was just another spin on an old, old story.
The roles of this play don't change. Nor does the plot. Only the characters.
And he watches as his students take up their parts.
VI. "you pick up the pieces"
He doesn't know what it means that the good guy loses, this time.
He's sitting with Rogue on a bench in the backyard, listening to the whole, messy story unravel from her lips, and it's suddenly hard to remember that analogues don't create truth. That Remy isn't Logan, and he isn't Bobby, and Jean wasn't Rogue.
He hears himself telling her to follow her heart, to do what makes her happy.
She says he sounds like a bad chick flick, but he knows his words have given her the absolution she seeks to do what she would have done anyway.
VII. "and the ghosts in the attic / they never quite leave"
Scott remembers a time when he'd been considered the bad boy. By all counts, Warren and Jean had everything going for them. He the scion of high society, she the daughter of an ancient and respected name. All Scott had to offer was a refurbished Harley and a devilish grin.
And she'd picked him. The bad boy who drove too fast and fucked her long and hard.
But somehow he'd turned into the Boy Scout, seeking to further Xavier's dream.
Maybe Jean had grown tired of being with the good guy. Heaven knows, Scott gets tired of himself sometimes, too.
VIII. "strange how we know each other"
"Beast," Scott says, leaning against the doorway to Jean's -- no, Hank's lab, now.
"Battle names in a non-combat situation, Cyclops?" Hank asks, looking up from his microscope. "I have a premonition that this will not end well."
"Ha. The Professor wants us to go on a camping trip."
"'Us'?"
"You. Me. Remy, Bobby, and Logan."
Hank raises an eyebrow at the last name. "That sounds rather… foolhardy." Scott knows he means, Will you be able to handle it?
He's tired of walking on eggshells. "That's why you're coming along."
"Oh?"
"To keep us from killing each other. Good luck."
IX. "there's a distance erased with the greatest of ease"
Sometimes Scott wonders, perversely, why it seems like Logan is the only one who understands him.
They've been on this goddamnstupididioticfuckme trip for four days, and a look of murderous rage has crossed Logan's face six times. Usually directed at Remy or Bobby. Never at him. Funny that Scott feels the same way.
"Do you think she would have been happy?" he asks Logan, later. With you?
Logan calls it a shitty question. "'Course she would."
But Scott's used to parsing beneath certainty and he hears what Logan doesn't say. But she was happier with you. It doesn't sound condescending.
X. "strange how certain the journey"
Scott.
Her voice has calling his name for three days. Every waking moment until he thinks he might be going crazy. Though if crazy means he can hear Jean, maybe it's not a bad thing.
Finally, he stuffs some shirts and his visor into a backpack, snags the keys to his bike, and takes off. His words to Logan are calculated to throw the other man off, to distract him from asking where Scott might be going, and for what reason.
He's glad his students are in good hands.
He revs his bike and points her north, toward Alkali Lake.