Log: Cyclops and Skids Who; Scott Summers and Sally Blevins When; Late at night, February 20th Where; The Kitchen What; Scott can't sleep. Sally can't sleep. So they not-sleep together, bicker a little bit, and eventually decide that sleep is good for both child torture and plan-making.
It was rare to see Scott actually acting human. He didn't eat with other people, didn't really hang around, and these days, he spent most of his time training or working or sleeping. Nobody really thought of him doing painfully normal things like, say ... raiding the kitchen way too late at night. Still, even as he did it, he had papers in his hands. Trying -- trying -- to outline a new strategy for fighting Magneto after Betsy had forced her way into his head and copied all the old ones.
At the small table in the kitchen, Scott was eating leftovers from that day with one hand (he hadn't actually gotten to dinner that day in the first place, so he was starving) and writing something with the other. The lamp near the table was on, but the actual kitchen lights weren't, providing just enough for him to see -- and just enough to cast a light, almost eerie glow under the closed kitchen door.
Hearing the door open, Scott twitched, not having expected someone to show up but still very much awake and on guard. A little tense, too, despite living in a school full of people who weren't enemies. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but anybody in Scott's position would be a little paranoid, wouldn't they?
Sally had taken to skulking around herself. But, for her, it was mostly because everyone was driving her up the wall. In all honesty, Sally didn’t really get off on conflict, probably contrary to popular belief. Deep down, as much as she held a deep-rooted belief in mutant supremacy, she was a pacifist at heart. She didn’t like fighting, didn’t like arguments, didn’t like… these big battles that verged on war. And so she’d just thrown her hands up at the entire situation and went about her normal teaching duties and managed to grab food every now and then at odd hours.
Which was how she walked in on Scott who… hm. This was a toughy. On the one hand: mm… Scott Summers, break her off a piece of that. On the other: uh, leader of the X-Men who probably wanted to bitchslap her for being a Magneto supporter. Dammit.
She coughed lightly, more to announce her presence than anything, mumbling a quick, “Hello.” Sure, she’d manage to debate politics with Kurt, but she didn’t want to pick a fight with dreamboat--- er, Scott.
Despite practically being Xavier's son, Scott wasn't about to get into a big debate over the mutants and humans fiasco. He was naturally on the side of peace, but after leading the X-Men for so many years, he was a great deal more of a fighter than Charles was. And ... he could understand hating humans. He could.
Seeming content that it was Sally and not someone skulking around in the dark waiting to ambush people, Scott stared for a moment before it occurred to him to, well ... say hi. He was a bit lacking in social skills but he wasn't that bad. "Hi." In the dark, she was just a human shaped red silhouette, but he thought he knew who it was. She sounded like Sally, anyway. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Like he was one to talk.
“Shouldn’t you?” Sally asked in turn. Welcome to the Xavier’s School Midnight Club. “I got hungry,” she added, gesturing to the fact that he was eating and had probably come down to the kitchen for much the same reason. That and she couldn’t sleep which, who knew, maybe he was having the same problem. It wasn’t like she saw Scott around a lot and she didn’t want to turn into some stalker or something. And, besides, she figured that he wasn’t any happier with her than anyone else was and, while it was no skin off her nose if anyone else wanted to lynch her, she sort of drew the line at getting chewed out by Scott.
Crossing to the refrigerator, she pulled open the door, leaning to rummage. “Is there anything decent in here?” Since he’d obviously done his own rummaging to some extent considering he was already eating.
Scott opted to skip her first question, going right to: "Leftovers, if you can find them." Some students must have been pilfering the place before he got there, but Fred didn't have to deal with leftovers all that often anyway. "Good luck. You'll need it to find anything good this late at night."
It didn't even occur to him to start thinking about Sally's politics. Sally was Sally, even if she'd gotten into a fight with Mary Jane. Not that he could blame her; Scott liked MJ, but even with that, he had to admit that Sally hadn't been entirely wrong in what she'd said. Not entirely.
“Mmmph,” Sally said by way of answering, going for the carton of orange juice --- she was one of the very few freaks in the world that put orange juice over her cereal instead of milk. It was probably safer for the kitchen if she stuck to something simple anyway, considering that she tended to leave a lot of things broken in her wake.
“Why’re you up this late?” she asked, rummaging through the cabinet for a box of Cheerios and pouring herself a bowl of cereal. Then she pressed her lips together. He was probably working on something X-Man and top secret. “Not that I really expect you to tell me.”
"Probably the same reason you are," he admitted -- even if he gave cereal and orange juice a bit of a weird look. "I can't sleep and I needed food." Scott had missed dinner with everyone else. He seemed willing to give up answers, if Sally asked for them; people just didn't usually ask Scott questions that weren't X-Men related. "Unless my eating habits are top secret now."
Scott knew how people thought of him. It didn't bother him all that much, really, but it managed to be almost funny sometimes. He had to be -- hah -- human sometime.
Sally gave him a look and practically slumped into a chair at the table with her bowl of Cheerios and orange juice. “I don’t know. Are your eating habits top secret now? You are pretty much the head guy around here; you should know.” You know, aside from Xavier.
A little on the nosy side, Sally had to ask, “Why can’t you sleep?”
Scott actually grinned, and there was something that might have been a laugh there, too. He shook his head, shifting a leaf of paper off the small pile he'd amassed. His work really was relatively secret, but that didn't matter much.
"Anyone will lose sleep the way things are right now. Everybody's fighting."
“Yeah, but we’re the only two up in the kitchen in the middle of the night,” Sally said, finally relaxing enough to giving him a small smile when he grinned. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t going to chew her out. Somehow she doubted that Scott was being nice just so he could bitchslap her a minute later.
Her eyes dropped to the papers on the table for a second, not really long enough to read anything on them, because she figured, if it was X-Men business, that it was better that she didn’t see any of it. The last thing she wanted --- or needed --- was to be accused of being a spy or finding herself conflicted. The smile faded a little when she asked, “So… then you’re busy trying to come up with a way to overthrow Magneto or something?”
"That is top secret." Self-conscious, he closed the top of the folder the papers were in. It wasn't that Sally's opinions had soured him toward her, but because Scott tended to work alone and show other people his plans when he thought they were as good as he could manage at the moment. "But that's the idea. It's a work in progress."
“Hey, I get it. Don’t show Sally the top secret plans,” she said, holding up her hands in surrender. She didn’t know what Scott was really thinking, since she didn’t realize his real motivation for covering up the plans, but she thought she did. “Believe me, I’d rather not know anyway.”
"They're not done. I'm just a little protective." It was a silly perspective, maybe, but Scott liked to think it was like Tommy's artistic protectiveness over her unfinished sketches. "It's nothing personal."
“Well, I’m sure whatever you come up with will be good. Great even.” She didn’t really like the idea of there being plans in the works to overthrow Magneto, but she also sort of held Scott in high regard when it came to his ability to lead his team. “I mean, honestly, there’s a reason why you’re in charge.”
"I like to think so," Scott admitted, even if he didn't quite share the sentiment at the moment. He wouldn't have turned his team over to anyone, but that didn't mean he felt any more sure of himself. "I'll take that as a compliment."
“Of course it’s a compliment.” And, since Scott wasn’t yelling at her, or reprimanding her, or even acting like he had to hide things from her just because she was pro-Magneto’s-regime, she was able to turn up the wattage of her smile. It helped that she’d had the biggest crush on Scott since she’d been a student. “And you should know so. Come on. Who else could do as good of a job as you?”
"Nobody. That's why I don't sleep and everybody else gets to complain at me when things go wrong." It was grating to have people complain when nothing was happening like it was easy to just pack up and go do things. Not wanting to dwell on it, Scott motioned toward her cereal with his pen. "How do you eat that?"
“Eat what?” Sally said with a blink, glancing down at her cereal. She’d eaten her cereal like this for as long as she could remember. It ended up being one of the side effects of living in a crappy household where no one got the groceries on a regular basis. No milk, stale cereal, and sometimes some orange juice in the fridge. “Oh. It’s good.” She took a spoonful and offered it to him. “Seriously. People usually drink orange juice with breakfast food anyway.”
Scott raised his hands in surrender. "I'll pass. I'll just take your word for it." Can't knock it 'till you've tried it and ... Scott wasn't willing to try it, so he'd leave well enough alone.
Sally shrugged and took the bite of cereal herself, chewing and swallowing before speaking again. “Is this all you do? Make battle plans that no one appreciates?”
Scott paused, seeming to actually think about that before he nodded. "Yes."
Sally dropped her spoon into her cereal, eyebrows going up. Seriously? She figured that Scott did all sorts of secret, exciting things in his spare time. “Don’t you go out? You know, you’ll burn out if all you do is work.”
"I think you give me too much credit, Sally. This is my life." He shrugged. "I enjoy my work."
“You enjoy being up in the middle of the night because you can’t sleep and sitting by yourself in a dimly lit kitchen?” Huh. Sally knew Scott was serious and pretty straight-edged, but, damn, the man was going to have die a slow, boring death at this rate.
"Why do people keep saying it like that? First MJ, now you." He actually chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm not that complicated. I do X-Men work, I fix cars. I'm content with that."
“There’s more to life than the X-Men and fixing cars, you know,” Sally said with a faint smile. She didn’t want to belittle his work as an X-Man --- somehow, she doubted that that would win her any points.
"I know. There's no time for much else right now." He sounded a little ... bitter? When he said it. Agitated with something that could have just been Magneto, perhaps, or the FoH.
“Call me crazy, and you probably will---” Like everyone else did. “---But have you ever considered throwing in the towel on this one and just sort of… looking for the good parts about everything that’s happening?”
"Briefly," Scott admitted. "But things need to change. If we don't fight, the Brotherhood will come right to us and destroy us. I'm shocked it hasn't happened yet, but I'll bet my eyesight that we're high on the Brotherhood hitlist in here."
Sally blinked, unsure how deep she wanted to get in this conversation. She would have gone off on a rant with anyone else but…
“Maybe you wouldn’t be on their hitlist if they weren’t on yours?” she offered tentatively, as though she was testing the waters with that comment.
Scott shook his head, treading lightly. He didn't want to fight with Sally, but he knew what she thought. "It's just the way it is, Sally. If I could change it, I would."
Sally sniffed and had to stifle an ‘oh, please’ look. “That’s only the way it is because both sides are fighting to keep it that way. If Magneto had seen the way mutants were being dominated and said ‘Oh, that’s just the way it is’, mutants would still be getting numbered.”
"If you can think of a plan to mend the relationship between the Brotherhood and the X-Men, you can have my job," he challenged. "This feud started before I was able to open my eyes. It's not something that can be changed as easily as you act like it can."
“Whoa, whoa,” Sally said quickly, before this could escalate into bickering. It seemed like every conversation she had these days escalated into that. “I don’t think it’s easy. I don’t even know if it’s possible. I’m just saying… maybe it’s better to work on something that might contribute to mending it instead of something that’s only going to make it worse.”
She cleared her throat, looking self-conscious for a second before going on: “I mean… okay, this isn’t my place or anything. But I do watch what goes on around here and I read the things typed back and forth and I listen. And it seems like, especially with the younger generation, the lines are a little more blurred between the Brotherhood and the X-Men. Maybe some sort of truce isn’t as far-fetched as it seems.”
"Maybe," Scott admitted. "It's not a gamble I'm willing to take right now. If we try to incite a truce, there's a good enough chance that we'll be stabbed in the back that it's not an option." Scott was a little bitter from the last few times he'd trusted a member of the Brotherhood. Mystique had lived in the school under the guise of a truce and then run off to take over the country, and Betsy---
Scott didn't even want to think about Betsy. Psychics on the whole were trouble, and he'd decided to just leave well enough alone as far as they were concerned. He was starting to understand Logan's issue with people messing around with his head.
Sally sighed, stirring her cereal… ugh, it was getting soggy and the conversation was sort of making her lose her appetite anyway. “I guess. It’s just a thought, that’s all.” Pushing her chair back, Sally went to go dump the remains of her cereal out, rinse the bowl and put it into the dishwasher. “You should really consider trying to sleep though.”
"It's a nice thought." He could give her that, at least. "Magneto will be beaten before I get a good night." Pushing up his glasses, Scott pushed back his chair, deciding to go give it a shot, anyway. Dumping the remains of whatever he'd been eating in the trash, he touched Sally's shoulder to keep her from closing the dishwasher so he could put his plate in.
And then, as if it had just occurred to him: "Why can't you sleep?"
Sally paused, glancing back at him when he touched her shoulder. Oh, crap. People were not allowed to be that hot.
…Jesus Christ, she wasn’t a teenager anymore. She needed to stop staring at him like a lovestruck sixteen-year-old. Clearing her throat, she took a step back to give him access to the dishwasher.
Maybe it was dark, or ... more accurately, Scott was probably too wrapped up in himself to realize he was being looked at. Or the lighting was bad. That was probably it.
And then she didn't actually answer his question, which prompted him to close the dish washer and give her a look. "Sally...?"
“…What?” Sally blinked and gave her head a little shake. Oh, right. Answering. Oops. “You know. I’m watching my back so no one sneaks in my room to lynch me in my sleep.”
Scott laughed. "If anyone tries to lynch you, I'm a few doors down." Nodding, he turned to leave, folder of plans in hand. "Good night, Sally. It's easier to torture children when you're awake; keep that in mind, next time you can't sleep."
Sally broke into a wide grin. She wasn’t even going to comment on him being a few doors down. The last thing she wanted was an angry, blonde telepath lobotomizing her. “Yeah, yeah,” she said, leaning back against the counter to watch him go --- of course she was going to let him leave first… uh, not so that she could check out his ass as he left or anything. “You remember that it’s easier to come up with battle plans when you’re sleep deprived. Night, Prof---- Scott.”
"Without Emma around I have a lot more free time. I'll keep that in mind." He'd said it less for Sally's benefit and more for his own. He'd only left Emma the other night, and it was almost like he said it to convince himself as much as anyone else. ---It had been for the best, after all. It was stupid to be skittish about it. With that, Scott gave Sally one last wave and walked away, ready to give sleep one more honest effort before he gave up on it entirely.