Learn to Fly (for tanya_ltp)

[imaginaryalice]

Author: Anika/imaginaryalice
Title: Learn to Fly
Recipient: tanya_ltp
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Warnings/Rating: PG
Summary: Wordplay with Scott and Emma, a breakdown of sorts and a gift.
Recipient's request: Scott/Emma, sweetness/romance from either party to surprise the other, the Blackbird.
Author's Notes: Perhaps this story reads like something is missing but it's a moment in time piece - meant to allow the reader to fill in the blanks. Many apologies for being late. Lyrics to the Beatles Blackbird.

Scott wandered through the kitchen, grabbed a piece of toast and with a peck on the cheek for Emma, wandered back out. He was humming quietly to himself.

"I didn't know Scott was a Beatles fan." Emma looked up from her coffee and addressed herself to Henry, sitting beside her reading the morning paper.

Henry looked over at her. "As far as I know he isn't one."

Emma frowned slightly. "I heard him humming Blackbird just now."

"Ah," Henry nodded. He folded the paper over once and placed it on the table. Picking up his coffee cup he continued, "He must be on his way to the hanger. To work on the plane."

"Oh." Emma turned toward the door, a quietly puzzled expression on her face. "How...obvious."

"Perhaps. But also effective." Henry smiled.

Emma returned the smile but it didn't reach her eyes. She nodded. "Perhaps."

xxx

Emma walked up the extended ramp of the X-Men's jet plane. Scott had been cloistered within it's bowels all day. Emma hadn't seen him since breakfast and wondered what it was that was taking so long.

She called out as she reached the top of the ramp. "Scott? What are you up to in here?"

"Just tinkering. I'll be done soon and we can go over the mid-terms." He was seated on the floor of the plane, tools splayed out in a precise semi-circle around him.

"They can wait. I was just wondering what you were working on so studiously."

"Studiously?" Scott turned to give Emma a bemused smile. She returned the smile and blushed slightly. He was the only one who could make her blush.

Perhaps the word was imprecise, she thought to herself. "I mean industriously. Unremittingly." She looked away, slightly abashed. "In exclusion to all else."

Scott sat back. "You think I'm ignoring you."

Of course he would assume that. "I think you're hiding something." Emma countered.

"I've been told by a reliable source you can't hide anything from a telepath."

Emma glared. She didn't really want to try and figure out which of the various telepaths in his life he was referring to. "Your reliable source must have forgotten to explain the ethics behind telepathy."

Scott sighed. He should have known she'd take that the wrong way. "I'm not hiding anything, Emma." She continued to glare at him. Fine. He turned away and picked up a tool. "I'll be done soon."

Emma watched a moment more but Scott didn't turn back. She stood, and walked away.

xxx

Scott stared at his face in the mirror as he brushed his teeth before bed. He knew it was only a matter of time before Emma returned to her inquisition about his time in the Blackbird. She'd been polite enough at dinner, if cold - frosty even. But their friends, and a good number of students, had been there. Emma and Scott preferred to keep their private lives as private as possible (which, honestly, was not all that private, but at least it was going better than it had with Jean). He sighed and returned to the bedroom.

"Are you ready to tell me what you were up to?" Emma didn't look up from the book she was supposedly reading, sitting up rigidly on her side of the bed.

Scott sighed again. "Why do you care so much?"

"I don't like not knowing." She closed her book and set it aside on the end table beside the bed, but still wouldn't look at him.

Scott crossed angrily to his side of the bed and sat facing away from her. "Thank you for answering honestly." He didn't bother to keep the edge out of his voice.

Emma looked over; his back was tense. She pulled herself over to him. "Scott, what's going on? You're being so cagey."

"No, you are being so suspicious."

Emma had realized it was her own bloody fault he was acting this way but she couldn't get past the idea that he was keeping something from her. And for some reason that Emma couldn't even pinpoint herself, it seemed desperately necessary to know what it was. "If you are not hiding anything why do you keep avoiding my questions?"

He turned to her, angrily. "I'm not."

She glared at him, pointedly. "You are."

Scott threw up his hands. "Why are we fighting about this?"

Emma swung her legs around so she was sitting beside him. "It's not a fight. It's civilized discussion."

Scott was unimpressed by the distinction. "In which we disagree."

"If you want it to be a fight it can be."

Scott clenched his teeth. "Of course I don't want to fight."

"Then stop." Emma said it as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Scott took a deep breath, at this point he'd lost track of who was escalating the situation, and it hardly mattered anyway.

"What were we talking about?" he asked calmly.

"What you're doing to the Blackbird." Emma answered with equal calm.

Scott answered exasperatedly, "I'm not doing anything to the Blackbird! I was just tinkering."

"Tinkering with what?"

"Emma, this is ridiculous."

She smiled her sweetest and most deadly smile. "Just give me a straight answer and I'll let it go."

"I wasn't doing anything in particular." He couldn't explain it any plainer than he already had.

"Why?"

"Why not?" He shrugged. "We want to keep it in peak condition, don't we?"

"You complete monthly diagnostics for that," Emma countered, certain there was something he wasn't telling her.

Scott realized this was getting out of hand. She was overreacting and he meant to know why. "Emma - what is this? Why do you care so much?"

Emma's aplomb faded under his gaze. "You were humming." Her voice was quiet, but had a haunted quality to it.

Scott was bewildered by this response. "What?"

"You were humming a song I didn't know you knew. Henry said you always hum it when you're working on your plane. But I have never heard you do so. I want to know why." Emma's voice was strident as she explained.

Scott stared. He had no idea what his subconscious humming had to do with anything. "Why does it matter?"

Emma had the grace to look abashed. "I don't know. It just does."

"But I didn't even know I was humming." Scott's was baffled by this conversation.

"If I admit to being irrational, will you tell me what you were doing?"

At least she was admitting it. "I already told you I wasn't doing anything!" Scott was reluctant to raise his voice but he felt dangerously close to the breaking point. He paused, took another deep breath and asked, "Emma, what's this really about?"

"We hardly know each other."

Scott was having a very difficult time following her train of thought. "What?"

"Henry knew why you were singing and I didn't." Her voice was almost petulant.

"Henry and I met when we were children."

"Just like Jean."

Scott looked away. Somehow it always seemed to get back to Jean. "...Yes."

Emma put a hand on his chin and pulled him back to look at her. "Do you know the words to that song?"

"What?" He stammered, "I, probably...why does it matter?"

"You were only waiting for this moment to arise," Emma quoted. Scott shrugged off her hand angrily.

"So this whole discussion is you being jealous of Jean?"

"No!" Emma cried out.

"Well then, what are we talking about?" Scott raised his voice to match hers. Emma was startled. A moment passed, both looking anywhere but at the other.

"My mother used to sing that song," Emma said finally.

Scott was surprised. She hardly ever mentioned her family and when she did it was usually along the lines of "Those horrible people who raised me." Instead, her voice had sounded soft and almost...wistful....

"Your...mother....?" He said quietly.

"Yes." She looked down at her hands, he thought he saw a tear escape her eye. "I didn't remember until today."

"I'm sorry if I brought back rough memories or...." Scott was at a loss. Emma wasn't one to break down, certainly not over a mother she'd always professed to pity and loathe. "Are you okay?"

"No." Emma Frost, cold hearted ice queen, collapsed into tears. Scott threw his arms around her and pulled her in close. She sobbed into his chest, tears and mucus mingling as she shook with the fury of her crying. Scott held her, willing her his strength, all thought of anger or annoyance shed as she fell apart in his arms. He didn't speak, just made quiet shushing noises and let her cry until there were no tears left. When she'd finally calmed, they were still for a long moment before she pulled her head up to look at him.

"Emma?" Scott spoke softly. "I really have no idea what just happened but if you want to talk about it...?"

She shook her head and leaned back into him. "Not right now. Just hold me."

xxx

"Emma?" Scott poked his head into the kitchen and waited until she'd looked up. "Come with me. I want to show you something." Emma frowned slightly but placed her coffee cup down and followed Scott out the kitchen and down the hall. He led her out of the main building and into the bowels of the school. She guessed where they were going but allowed him to lead her. He didn't speak again until they'd climbed up the ramp of the plane and were back where they'd been the day she'd been so adamant he was hiding something from her.

"This is what I was working on the other day," he said, stopping by the copilot's chair. Emma stared but didn't see anything new about the chair.

"What is it?" She asked, confused.

"It's nothing. Just like I told you. I was tinkering."

"Oh." Emma felt a bit stupid but of course she'd never show it. However, he deserved an apology. "I'm so sorry."

"No, it's okay." He hadn't brought her here to make her feel bad. "I realized you were right about something. I was hiding."

She shook her head. "Everybody deserves privacy and alone time, Scott."

"Yes, that's very true. But it's also true that sometimes it's fun to be together even if we're not doing anything in particular."

She raised her eyebrows. "You mean....we could 'just tinker' together?"

"Exactly."

Emma smiled and shook her head. "I'm not very mechanical, Scott." In truth, she was the least mechanical person he'd ever met. But that wasn't the point.

"You don't have to be," he said. "You can just keep me company."

"Okay." He could tell she wasn't sold but had decided to humor him.

"But if you want to learn...I got you this." He pulled out a small case, all white with her name stenciled on it in a rather officious script.

Emma stared. "What is it?"

"A tool kit."

The stare turned into wide-eyed shock. "What, seriously?"

"I'm a pretty serious guy." He smiled affably.

Emma took the case from him. "I never imagined myself..." She looked up at him and shook her head, unable to find the words.

"Afraid to get your hands dirty?" He teased.

Emma's eyes twinkled at the challenge. "Of course not."

"Good. Let's get started."

xxx

Hours later her hands were dusty, if not truly dirty, but Scott didn't mind when she snaked them around his waist and leaned into his back.

"Scott?"

"Yes?"

"Have you ever...?"

He caught the faint whisp of a thought in his mind. "What - in the Blackbird? No."

He heard her laughter in his head as she pulled him around and said, "I think it's your turn to try something new."

Fin.