Yes, this is me writing a JOTT...
This was meant to be a one-shot in three parts, in the genre of gloom or despair. Then Ororo hijacked it somehow. JOTT FLUFF ATTACK! Now the three sections (Scott, Xavier, Magneto) work out so differently it didn't feel right to keep them together. I will be writing them, though!
Night visitors
"Scott. Scott?"
Scott whirled around.
"Whoa, there." Jean chuckled. "Your thoughts are banging into one another. Is Jean here? No one else is in this room! Where's Jean? Am I hearing things?"
Scott's brow creased in confusion.
"Yeah, I'm speaking to you telepathically." Scott could hear her grin. "Now you try it. Focus on a reply. Just say, 'Hey.' Say it out loud first if that helps."
Scott cleared his throat awkwardly. "Hey," he said.
In her own room, Jean stifled a giggle. "Not bad," she grinned. "A little loud, but we can work on that."
"So you're projecting your thoughts into my mind, and then you pick up my answer?"
"That's right. It isn't truly two-way, because you're not telepathic, but we'll be the only two in the school with our own private line. So..." Jean sat cross-legged on her bed. "What're you doing now?"
"You barged into my head to ask me what I'm doing now? Couldn't you have just walked over and asked?"
"Sure, but this is more fun, isn't it? And for your information, I'm not looking into your head. Strict code of telepaths."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. The professor says that if mutants are to live side-by-side with humans, we must never abuse our abilities." Jean rubbed her temples. "Besides, I don't know how much I could read you. Just picking up what you're blasting at me is hard enough."
Scott sat down at his desk and twirled his pen. "Well, that's good to hear, because I think it's much more sexy to remain mysterious, don't you?"
Jean cracked up. Scott was about to say something else when someone rapped on his door. Ororo popped her head in. "Scott, are you talking to yourself?" she demanded.
Scott pulled his face straight. He could hear Jean doubling over with laughter. "No, Ororo, I'm not talking to myself."
"Well, that's good news, but some of us are going crazy enough studying for the history test tomorrow without you yelling at the walls or whatever. Can you keep it down?"
If she doesn't leave this minute I'm going to burst out laughing in her face, Scott thought. And Jean wasn't helping. "I'll try," Scott said carefully.
"Good. Now I have to go see what's eating Jean." Ororo slammed the door peevishly. Scott could hear her stamping down the hallway.
"You'd better watch out," he told Jean.
"Why? I wasn't saying anything," Jean replied innocently.
Jean tuned out of his head, presumably occupied with fending off Ororo's angry attacks. Scott rolled his eyes and went back to his homework. He thought he heard Ororo giggle, but figured he must be imagining it. If she can get from one mood to another as fast as that, he thought, then she's definitely insane.
"Still there?" came Jean's voice after a while.
"Yeah. I was just thinking, is there any way to deepen our connection? Say if I wanted to call out to you, for example."
Jean thought. "We already have a mind link, I guess you could call it, I'm better attuned to what you're thinking because you let me in, mostly. In fact, it could be harder for you to keep anything from me in the future."
"Why's that?"
"Chances are you'd be thinking of it more, making it easier for me to catch. The professor explained it to me... okay, ten seconds, don't think of a pink elephant."
Ten seconds later, Scott said, "I guess you saw herds and herds of pink elephants in here."
"Cheer up. It's unavoidable. I never asked you though... are you comfortable with this?
"I wouldn't be if it were anyone else but you."
"Really?"
"One hundred percent," he promised. "Hey, Jean, can you do something?"
"Depends on what that is... if it's your Chem homework, forget it." Her voice was teasing.
"Then I won't ever help you with..." Scott's voice trailed off. There wasn't really any subject Jean needed help with. "Anyway, it's not Chemistry."
"Aww. Then what?"
"Could you... read my mind?"
"I guess..." She faltered. "Why?"
"No reason, but I was just wondering. I feel like I know so much about you, but you never got to know me... Besides, best friends shouldn't keep secrets from each other, right?"
Jean snickered. "I can't believe you're saying that, Scott Summers. How old are you again, six?"
"Definitely shows how much you know about me." That got another laugh out of her. "Come on. Try?"
There was a long silence. Scott didn't feel anything.
"Jean?"
Still nothing. Scott tried again.
"Jean?"
--
Ororo looked horrified.
Jean squeezed her eyes shut and slumped back against the bed. "Oh, my God, 'Ro, this is so embarrassing," she moaned.
Ororo had to shut her mouth, which was still hanging open in shock. "Jean, I can't believe how stupid you are," she declared. "Of course he likes you! He's had a crush on you since he first saw you. Most people would find that sweet."
"It is, but why me?"
"How the hell would I know?" Ororo was getting impatient. "Let's replay this. You're talking to him. You read his mind-"
"He asked me to," Jean interjected.
"He asks you to read his mind, you read his mind, fine. And you see he really wants to take off his...?"
"Visor," Jean insisted, burying her head in her hands.
"Reeaaaally?"
"'Ro, you're awful."
"So I am," Ororo conceded. "So he just wants to look at you without his visor on."
"Uh," said Jean, cheeks flushing.
"Okay, so probably a little more than that. I'm not going there, Jean," she added, exasperated. "I really doubt Summers planned that far ahead. Unless you did."
"Ororo!"
"Jean, calm down. Look, it's perfectly understandable that he'd want to see without his visor, whether looking at you or otherwise. Just think what having his mutation must be like."
Jean didn't calm down. "What'm I going to tell him, 'Ro? I have to give him some sort of an answer soon!"
Ororo paused. She listened for a moment. "He's coming down the hallway," she remarked, off-handedly. "I think it's so funny that the professor hasn't yet thought to put the boys on a different floor, don't you?"
"What do I say, 'Ro?" Jean wailed.
Ororo fixed her with a glare. "Do you like him or not?"
"I do!" Jean squeaked. "But how-"
Ororo started crawling under Jean's bed. "Well, chicken out if you're too scared. Don't let him in. Say you're not decent. Oops, probably not the right word to use in this context."
"If anyone's indecent here-" Jean hissed heatedly, when there came a knock on the door.
"Jean? You alright in there?"
Ororo was snickering from under the bed. I hope you choke on a dust bunny and DIE! Jean thought savagely, as she went to open the door.
"Hey," she said, rather more breathlessly than she would've liked. Oh my God! She thought hysterically, overreacting more than she would have under any other circumstance, he doesn't have his shirt on.
"I'm sorry, something about my shirt?" Scott asked innocently.
Jean's eyes widened. I thought I had the advantage here... so the mind link's a double-edged sword. And either he's catching on fast, or he's catching on really fast and just has a good poker face... "Uh, it's a little cold out, just wondering if you'd catch a chill."
Just that morning at breakfast Jean had complained how it must have been the hottest day all summer. She blushed again. Before Scott could point that out, she quickly added, "I'm fine, thanks. Just... a little tired."
"Oh." Scott fidgeted. "Well, okay."
"Chicken," Ororo hissed from under the bed, so only Jean could hear. "Wuss!"
"I know what you want," Jean blurted out.
Scott's face was blank. "I'm sorry?"
Now that came out so wrong. Ororo was practically wheezing with laughter under the bed now. Jean fumed. I'll show you...
Hands trembling just a little, Jean reached out and grasped the arms of Scott's glasses.
"Whoa, hang on... Jean?"
Jean bit her lip. "Trust me," she whispered, and tipped the visor from his eyes.
For a split second, Scott's world was filled with color. He could see the white of the walls, the brown wood of the closet, Jean's yellow bedspread... and Jean herself, standing right in front of him. She never looked so beautiful as she did then, with her brow furrowed in concentration and her eyes bright, the clearest shade of green he'd ever seen.
And then she quickly jerked his visor back up, and his vision swam red again.
Both of them were breathing hard for a minute, Jean from exhertion, Scott from exhilaration. (A/N: OMG TWO X-PUNS IN THE SAME SENTENCE! Sorry, totally ruined the mood there.)
"How did you do that?" he said finally, when he had caught his breath.
"My telekinesis. I don't think I could keep it up for long, though..."
"That was... that's amazing."
Jean looked into his face, and even with his eyes shielded, she knew how sincere he was. Then...
"Oh, no," Jean whispered, panic-stricken. "The professor's coming down! You're not supposed to be out of your room!"
Still under the bed, Ororo rolled her eyes. Only goody-two-shoes like Jean and Scott would be worried about something like the curfew. She was more concerned about more immediate problems, like the professor finding a shirtless boy in a room with two girls in it.
"Quick, get in the closet!" Jean urged Scott. Cursing herself for not having any better ideas or hiding places, Jean wrenched the door open and practically shoved Scott in, then jumped into bed. She could hear the sound of the professor's wheelchair coming down the hall (something you learn to listen out for), and then a door opening. But it wasn't hers.
"Uh, Jean?" Scott ventured. "I think he's gone to check my room first."
...darn it, thought Jean.
"Any chance you could convince Prof X that I'm still in there?" Scott said hopefully. "Mental projection, maybe?"
"Who do you think I am, Houdini?" Jean retorted. A second door clicked open. She heard Ororo groan.
"Listen, you," Jean addressed Scott and Ororo collectively, suddenly hit with a brainwave. "The professor's just next door. Your room is empty. I, on the other hand, am exactly where I'm supposed to be. I guarantee that in less than thirty seconds, he will be coming in here and you will most probably get caught. I think now is the time you should run for it."
Almost simultaneously, Scott and Ororo burst out of their hiding places and ran out the door. She could hear the professor let out a squawk of surprise, but Jean just chuckled to herself and settled back into bed. Before the professor even came into her room, she was sound asleep.
--
Please review if you liked it so I know if I should do this sort of thing again! And you might be interested in checking out my other fic, Powerless. Thanks so much!