diademlogs | make me sweat, make me hotter

Entry tags:

make me sweat, make me hotter › open catch-all

Who: Storm (Ororo Munroe) and others (OTA!)
Where: Panorama, the Fringes
When: through October
What: Catch-all

Warnings: None yet! Will edit as they come up.

Open and closed prompts posted below!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ She's not fresh out of a fight either, but he's not the only one with new injuries since that night. Maybe they'll talk about it, or maybe they won't, but her eyes linger over his little souvenirs for a few moments before she gives him a brief nod and a little space so he can inspect things himself. ]

Can you, really? I thought it was the battery just giving out. It took a few tries to start this morning, but I got there eventually. [ Her voice steadies and reaches a more confident cadence the longer she talks - like it's any old ordinary sit-rep between them. She's spoken to him like this a million times before.

She sighs as she continues. It's not a pleasant situation to be reporting. ]

I can't get a new one until— well. If I make it through enough rounds tonight, maybe I can get one before the sun rises tomorrow. But if you can find a fix...

[ There's a lot of little jobs to do in Panorama, and she'd just figured that the Dome is the quickest way to address an emergency like this. But she'd appreciate not having to fight at all if Scott could find a better solution. ]

Are you doubting my skills?

[ Scott pointedly quips back, but it's bereft of any snarkiness, just neutral and almost akin to the tone he uses during Danger Room sessions. With an air of arrogance he carries as the leader of the team, as someone proud of his skillset. Of course, it's also accompanied by a small quirk of his lips, as if also in teasing.

The thing is, though, even while Scott seems okay for the most part, he's also a bit more withdrawn. Like he's still trying to resurrect that part of himself who died along with the news of his and Jean's death. He doesn't think he'd ever be the same again, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing in the long run. Day after day, he's slowly trying to gain footing once more. To live with the pain, as Wade's friend said. ]

The battery's part of it, but not the whole problem. I'll do a quick fix, and if you can jumpstart it, we can drive it to the Scrapyard and I can fully fix it there. Give you a new battery, too. [ He frowns at the mini-van. ] This model's a bit complicated.

[ Yes, he's now working at the Scrapyard full-time. Helps take him out of bars and the Dome. Helps dull the persistent ache he still feels sometimes. ]

[ She falls quiet while he tinkers, watches him tweak and tug at places she just doesn't understand, in a rhythm that she won't ever be able to replicate. It must be nice to have such an intrinsic understanding of something so complex, she thinks. Scott was always impressive that way. She may be misremembering a little, but she's sure that's at least part of what made him so attractive to a gifted telepath like Jean. A voice that sounds like her seems to snicker and echo in her head: It's all the neat orderliness in his mind.

Thinking of Jean is still painful, especially in the same breath as thinking of Scott. He was right here next to her - it's unbelievably unfair that Jean isn't right here, too. ]

I can jump it. I was concerned about burning it inside-out, but if you think it'll help... [ Her voice trails off as she starts another spark between her fingers. How much juice does it need? ... She'll lowball and give it a bit more, that seemed safe. ]

You don't have to get me a new one, though. I'll pay for it. And for your time.

[ If doctors can figure out what ails a sick person, Scott can do the same with a broken vehicle. The way his mind works whenever met with something he can fix is probably akin to how Ororo can feel moisture in the air or the subtle shift of wind currents. It's inherent to him. Neat orderliness is second nature to Scott, so it's no wonder that this deteriorated when he fell into pieces.

Every tweak, every tug is with purpose and Scott only finishes tinkering when he feels the sparks between her fingers. The fix he did is a bit complicated, but should hold up until they get to the Scrapyard where he has more power tools. More room and time to give Ororo's ride the fixer-upper it needs.

Turning to her, he gives her a precise measurement of just how much electricity she can give the mini-van to jumpstart it as he steps back to give her space to do so. ]

Think of it as my apology for leaving you that night at Kolliery. [ And for being scarce. And for not being a good friend. Scott says this with a small apologetic smile on his lips. When he continues, he softly shakes his head. ]

Shouldn't have done it. [ He sighs. ] So here I am, trying to be better.

Scott. [ Ororo sighs, and the spark in her fingers fizzles out abruptly. She can't jump her car when they're talking like this - she'll fry the entire thing if she isn't careful, and who knows what could happen if either of them say anything particularly triggering?

She turns to face him more properly. He's so tall that she has to tilt her chin up, but she does it so she can meet his gaze behind those red lenses of his. ]

But you're not the only one who owes an apology. I should have been more upfront with you - should have said something on the very day you found me here. [ She reaches out to touch his arm gently, her touch hesitant for a second before she curls her fingers around his sleeve. ]

I'm sorry. I want to be better for you too. [ She doesn't know if she'll ever even see him again outside of this city - so she had to be better. Him walking out like that was ultimately fine and harmless - so she'd take it from him a million times if it meant knowing he was alive and whole. After all, this may be the last chance she may see him that way at all. ]

[ Looking down, Scott stares at her hand on his arm for a moment. It's comforting the way it stays there, solid and warm. Ororo has always been a good friend and it hasn't been easy to go weeks on end without her. Without any of them, basically. It's only now when he's picking himself back up slowly but surely does he really miss the reassurance of his found family. Only now when he has been able to somehow cage his grief.

Shaking his head again, he puts a hand on hers, not to shove it away from his arm but to squeeze it in assurance. ] You guys did what you had to do. I understand that better now. I'm sure it wasn't easy to see me again after experiencing... [ He trails off, not really knowing how to phrase his own death. ] ... all of that.

Sure as hell not easy to tell me about it, too. [ His lips tug up into a bit of a wider smile now, wistful but still reassuring. ] You'd be happy to know Logan and I also talked.

[ The problem is, it's still not easy to talk about it. It's not because it's a fresh wound, but because it lingers in such an odd way. Having Scott here doesn't mean she will have him back if she's ever found herself at home again.

But he is here. They both are. And Ororo resolves to get over it and pick up where they left off - as friends just trying to help each other, even if it's through something as simple as getting a stalled car started again. Or talking about a mutual . . . friend? Logan was their friend, right? ]

Oh? [ She looks under the hood again, sparks starting from her fingertips. She needed to do this already so they could leave the side of the road. ] What did you two talk about?

[ She touches a metal clip and concentrates, feeding it just enough voltage as Scott has described. ]

You know, he was with me. When we went to look for you.

[ As soon as Ororo feeds the vehicle with enough voltage, it successfully starts. By the sound of it, Scott's right. It'll be enough to get them to the Scrapyard.

The question, though, and her telling him she was with Logan to look for him turns his smile into a fonder one. He still remembers what he and Logan discussed, what words he told him to somehow bring him out of his funk. ]

Gave me one hell of a pep talk, that asshole.

[ The way Scott says that last word, though, is bereft of any malice, but with all the fondness he can muster. It's still Logan. They'd still bicker and argue over the smallest (and sometimes biggest) things, but life has an odd way of playing out here. Perhaps it was because he didn't experience Jean's death or the events leading to his own that made it easier for him to come to terms with the inevitable. Maybe it's how Logan became a steady shoulder to rely on prior to everything falling apart that also helped him listen to the guy even in his anger and misery. Perhaps it's also how everyone came together to look out for him. Scott wouldn't know for sure why, this time even while wallowing in his grief, he was able to pull out of it. What made this different from back home.

Maybe no two timelines are really the same. Circumstances will always differ, after all. ]

Thanks for trying to look for me. [ A beat. ] Logan may be rough around the edges, but he's alright. [ Really started to grow on him, admittedly. The way Logan handled that conversation with him, while also being receptive to it after a lot of thinking, really helped. ]

Anyway, let me just get my bike so we can ride to the Scrapyard together.

He's reliable. [ Ororo can't help but add that as she ruminates on how vital a role he's played in all this. Triggered Scott's discovery of the truth, but eased it too. It'll linger with her later, how he just has an effect on Scott, and she wishes she had half as much an effect on him at all. These days she feels like an imposter in her own body - like there's nothing left of who she once was, the longer she's lived apart from the people who were important to her. ] And for all his rough edges, he... gets to people in ways that last. I'm glad he got to you again, even here.

[ That much is sincere, at least. It's the last thing she'll say on the matter as they make their way to the Scrapyard, where she signals that she'll park wherever he tells her to; she trusts that he knows his way around better than she does. ]

I hope whatever's wrong with it is still fixable. I can't imagine needing an entirely new car here. [ That sounds like a separate nightmare. Maybe she can find something that'll keep her car from needing frequent trips to the garage. ]

[ Scott's also glad Logan got to him. At the moment that the mutant did, he wasn't as happy nor grateful, but in hindsight, as days passed, he knows he owed Logan again. Third time ever since they both wound up here. Perhaps it's true that third time's the charm. As days turned into weeks, he's become more aware that Logan's like his foil, the other side of who he is. Their duality is apparent, even to him. Even if he's not going to willingly admit this to Logan.

But Scott believes it's not just Logan who completely pulled him out of his funk. It's all of them. Charles, Storm (because he knows she cleaned after him sometimes), Cable, heck even Erik. Friends he made here. And Avocado Man (Wade). It took a village, even if Logan was in the center of it.

Once they've arrived at the Scrapyard, Scott directs her where to park, making sure that her vehicle would get attended to immediately. He'll personally get to it. As he dismounts from his bike, he enters the nearby shop and looks as if he knows his way around. ]

It's fixable. You wouldn't need a new car as long as I'm around. [ Grabbing his tools on the shelf, and realizing how this looks to Ororo, he gives her a small smile. ] I work here now, by the way. Took a short-term contract a few weeks ago. Never left since.

[ He opens the hood of her mini-van. ] I still take some contracts back at the city for manual labor shifts, but this helped me a lot, too. Not just everyone being there for me. [ Or Logan's pep talk, for that matter. Diving head first into engineer work was also a great outlet. Helped him out of bars and the Dome. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

make me sweat, make me hotter › open catch-all

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject