My thoughts on how a young Jean and Scott set up their link. Pre X1
Wish I owned them, but I don't. Just taking them out for a short walk.
Another long semester of University completed. I'm one step closer to becoming a doctor. Though right now, the most important thing to me is the fact that I'm back at the Institute for the summer. I could have gone to stay with my parent's, but that house is no longer my home.
I collapse facedown onto my bed, one of the perks of being an early student at the institute is having my own room. It's not a massive room, but it's mine. No roommates snoring to keep me up.
There's a light knock at my door, I mentally reach out to whoever is there. I can't stop the smile from spreading across my face as I feel the mental impression of my boyfriend, Scott. Too lazy to get up and physically open the door I take advantage of my powers and open the door. I hear him enter and close the door behind him.
"Heya, Jean." He kisses the back of my neck, slides his hand down my back and settles down beside me. I roll to my side to find his eyes behind his glasses.
"Hey, you," I lean in and kiss him softly. "I missed you." He is another reason that I decided to spend the summer at the institute. Our relationship has only just taken the step past being best friends and I want to make up for lost time. After many years of feeling each other out and both feeling that it was in the best interest of the other not to pursue a romantic relationship, we took the next step after a Danger Room session gone wrong. I got badly hurt when Scott blasted through a wall that I was using for cover. We learned two things that day. One, using our com-links was vital on missions and two, how important we were to each other. Scott refused to leave my side in the med bay and on my return to class he would escort me to every class, making sure I was comfortable. Eventually, I kissed him, told him not to worry and that it would take a lot more than a blast from him to chase me away. A few days later he took me on a date, and after that we were always together. Granted that was nothing new, there were just a few more public displays of affection.
"You're beautiful," He says as he rubs his thumb over my cheek. I close my eyes reveling in his touch. He kisses my forehead and whispers that he missed me too. I worm my way into his arms and listen to his heartbeat. "Long trip home?"
"I couldn't get back here fast enough, Scott. Knowing you would be here and we have the whole summer to spend together," Still listening to his heartbeat he starts to run his hands through my hair. This is the way life should be. I move to give him a lazy kiss, which quickly picks up momentum and I'm on my back with Scott leaning over me. I reach up to his face and I lightly brush his glasses. I must have hit them harder than I thought because Scott jumps back like he's just been struck by Storm's lightening.
"Jesus, Jean! Don't you realize how dangerous that is?" I reach out to him, but he pulls away and sits on the edge of my bed, head in his hands.
"Scott, it's fine, I'm fine, and you are fine. I'll be more careful next time."
"How can you be so calm about this! If my glasses fell off, I could kill you before either of us knew what happened. How can you trust me?"
"Scott, your glasses have never fallen off before .I also know how you are with your powers. I know how controlled you are with them. I know that you would never intentionally hurt me," I kneel on my bed and hug him from behind, resting my head on his shoulder." You need to start trusting yourself, Slim." His left arm crosses his body and tangles in my hair.
"I'm scared that I could hurt you, again." He says barely above a whisper
"You would hurt me if that prevented you from fully investing in this relationship. I've wanted you for so long, I'm not going to let this get in our way."
"But one glance with my glasses off," I go to cut him off with a question and slid into his lap.
"When we kiss are your eyes closed?" One of his eyebrows dips below the frames of his glasses while the other is halfway up his forehead. I find a confused Scott very adorable, but I can't let myself get distracted by that. "Seriously, answer my question. I promise it's not a deal breaker if they stay open, a touch creepy, but not a deal breaker." That earned me a small smile, and I mentally give a sigh of relief.
"Of course they are closed," He kisses my forehead. "I may be a mutant, but I still act like a human in that respect."
"Good, that puts my mind at ease," I again find his eyes. Out of nowhere I get the urge to see his whole face. "Scott, do you trust me?"
"Implicitly"
"Would you let me kiss you with your glasses off?" This time both eyebrows shoot up his forehead and I can feel panic rolling off of him.
"Why the hell would you want to do that?"
"To show you how much I trust you and that you can trust yourself." I start running my fingers through his hair and try to rub his shoulders a bit to help him relax. I desperately want to probe his mind and hear his internal argument, but right now is all about trust and that would be a total invasion. Scott looks away from me and out the window overlooking the basketball court. He is very silent, which is pretty normal for him, but it is killing me.
"Do you realize how vulnerable that would make me feel?" I gently bring his face back to look at me and kiss him.
"That is not my intent. If it would make you feel uncomfortable, we can forget I ever asked."
"No, it's not that, I don't know what it is, but…." He rests his forehead on mine and continues. "You can't lie to me if we were to talk using your teleapathy, right?" I nod, "Well, I know this is asking a lot, but could you make a connection so I can really feel what is going on in your head and why this whole no glasses thing is so important to you." His face flushed with what I think is embarrassment. "You can also poke around to understand why I feel the way I do about this all…."
"Oh, Scott, are you sure you want me to send everything that I'm feeling to you? It might overwhelm you," I try to hide the hesitancy in my voice, I know that if I do set up the link I would be unable to hide all the love I feel for him. I don't want to scare him off if he's not in the same place emotionally. I don't want to ruin what we have and have him see me as desperate.
"I 'm gonna be so open to you, I think it's only fair that you are open to me." I guess that I did a decent job of hiding my hesitation.
"You're sure?" He nods and I notice his jaw is set and brow furrow. " Alright, I'll try to link us. This will be the most complex link I've done, so it's gonna take a second." I raise my hands to the sides of his head and concentrate, gently poking and probing the inner reaches of his mind. I slowly start to weave a connection between us, I can feel the initial onset of a headache, but this is too important to stop now.
When I think I've got it set up I send out a thought asking Scott if it worked. He looks at me dumbly for a split second then breaks into a full grin. I pick up an enthusiastic thought of "Holy shit! I can fucking believe you're in my head!" I can help but giggle at the use of profanity from him. I rest my hands on the sides of his head and send out the thought, "I've held up my part, can I take the glasses off now?" Scott swallows hard and his adam's apple bobs a bit, but he nods and guides my hands to take the glasses. His face is tense and I don't think that he can close his eyelids any tighter. I kiss the portion of his temple that is usually covered by shades and mentally command him to relax.
"Okay," he whispers, "I'll try." I push our link as far open as it will go as I kiss my way down his face to his mouth. I note all the emotions going to him, the most prevalent being sheer joy, and smile against his face as he picks up on the arousal present. I take that moment to finally kiss his lips.
The idea of fireworks happening when you kissed someone had always seemed slightly silly to me, but I finally got what people were getting at with that description. I try to keep the kiss fairly calm, but we quickly gain passion, spurred on by the feeling each other's emotions. I feel the love in me build and Scott senses it. To my surprise, instead of feeling panic or shock from Scott, I feel his love come back to me through the link.
I finally pull back and place his glasses on his head. Once he confirms that everything is where it's supposed to be, he cracks the biggest smile I have ever seen on him.
"Wow, Jean. That was incredible," he gives me another kiss on my lips. "I'm happy I had that idea of that link." He falls back on my bed and pulls me with him, a surprised gasps escapes my mouth.
"I concur, I never realized a link could be so strong," I bring my hands up and try to disconnect the link. Scott grabs my hands away.
"Leave it, I kinda like it."
"Good you feel that way, I don't think I can cut the connection. We might have gotten a bit carried away and it's much stronger than when I put it in….." Scott smiles at me, and pulls me closer, kissing the top of my head.
"Well done, Redd."
"I can ask the Professor to help cut it, if you want. I mean it's a total invasion of your mind and you may not want me knowing everything that runs around in that gorgeous head of yours."
"Jean, don't worry about it. I said I like it," Scott pulls a blanket over us. "And Jean, I love you, you know that right?" I can't help but smile and curl up even tighter to his side.
I telepathically send out the thought "There's no hiding it or denying it now, is there? I love you too, Slim." With that I fell asleep with my soul mate and best friend. Happy that everything is now out in the open.