"Are you done yet?"
Sean rolled his eyes.
"Lorna, tell your boyfriend to stop bothering me," he said.
"Alex, stop being a pain," Lorna said, not looking away from the recipe for frosting.
"We're getting impatient," Alex said.
He looked down at his brother.
"Aren't we Scott?"
Scott nodded and sighed. He looked at his watch. He wanted to get back to the games, but not if he was going to miss this. Ororo was turning fourteen and Lorna and Sean had volunteered to make the cake. It was going to be chocolate.
That meant that there was going to be batter. If there was one thing that Scott loved more than cake, it was the batter.
"You're taking forever," Alex groaned.
"Shut up!" Sean said, "If you're impatient, why don't you help Moira clean up the library? There's probably still wrapping paper everywhere."
"I prefer this."
He finished pouring the last of the cake batter into one of the pans. He tossed the bowl, the spoon still inside, to Alex. Alex caught it in one smooth motion.
"Happy?" Sean asked.
"Incredibly," Alex said.
Alex looked down at Scott again.
"What's say you and I have some cake batter Scotty boy?" he asked.
"I'm kind of old for that nickname," Scott said.
Alex gave him a fixed look.
"I don't care if you're three hundred," Alex said, "You're still going to be Scotty boy. Now, do you want the cake batter or not."
"You're going to get salmonella," Lorna said.
"And we'll enjoy every minute of it," Alex said.
He put his hand on Scott's shoulder and steered him towards the kitchen table. He could hear a cheer from the other room, but he'd be able to get back to the games in a minute. Alex pulled out a spoon from one of the cupboards and handed it to Scott.
"When there's not enough for a spoonful, just use your hands," Alex said.
"You're teaching him bad habits!" Lorna called.
"Yes I am!" Alex called back.
"I'm thirteen," Scott said, "Any bad habits I have are pretty much already ingrained."
"Yeah, what he said," Alex said.
His brother took the spoon from inside the bowl and, after scooping some of the batter up, put it in his mouth. Scott did the same thing. The lukewarm gooiness made him smile. He slurped it down and reached for some more.
Alex and he ate in silence until the bowl was pretty much clean. Chocolate cake batter never lasted long enough. Scott ran his finger along the inside and looked up. Alex had some chocolate on the tip of his nose and Scott laughed.
"What?" Alex asked.
"You have some on your nose," Scott said.
"Okay," Alex said.
He wiped his hand across his face, smearing the chocolate onto his cheek.
"Now it's on your cheek," Scott said.
"Damn, can't win, can I?"
Lorna walked in, a napkin in hand. She shook her head before wiping Alex's face. She gave him a look of mock-disgust.
"Havok. More like Pigman," she said.
"I resemble that remark," Alex said.
She smiled and walked back to the other side of the kitchen. Scott cocked his head and Alex frowned.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Nothing," Scott said.
"No, what is it?"
He debated telling Alex that he was happier than he'd been in a long time, that he could see that Alex was happier too. He wondered if he should tell him that, despite all the months when a perpetual fog had hung over them, life seemed good again.
Scott decided to say something else instead.
"You just had to have your girlfriend clean you up," Scott said, "You are a mess."
"Right, and you're Mr. Clean," Alex scoffed.
Scott got out of his chair.
"I'm gonna go see if the games are still going on," he said, already starting for the door.
"Right, don't get yourself hurt, don't hurt anyone else, and remind everyone not to use their powers inside the house!" Alex yelled.
Scott waved and walked into the next room. Immediately he became a little lost. When he'd left they'd been playing Twister. Scott honestly couldn't see the appeal of it, but it had been one of Ororo's gifts and she'd been excited to give it a try.
Now he had no idea what they were playing. Rahne had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and was laughing. Ororo jumped over the couch and grabbed at her. She missed her, but managed to grab the blanket. Rahne stumbled backwards and Ororo used the opportunity to get a better grip on her.
Despite Rahne's age she was still small and light. Ororo knew this, and grinned as she picked her up. Ororo twirled her around.
"I've gotcha!" she said.
Rahne squealed just as Warren and Clarice came around the corner.
"How'd you get her first?" Warren asked.
"It's my birthday," Ororo said, "And the cape made it easy."
"The rules say I have to wear the cape," Rahne complained as Ororo let her down.
"What rules?" Scott asked.
"The ones we're making up," Ororo said, brushing some of her hair off her shoulder.
"I hate this stupid cape," Rahne said.
"Hey, don't knock it," Ororo said.
She untied the blanket from Rahne's shoulders and tied it over her own.
"I think that I look rather heroic in it," she said, posing.
"I think it gets in the way," Warren said.
"Of course it would for you: you've got wings," Ororo said, flipping the cape over her shoulder, "But for those of us who don't, it adds a sense of drama."
"You're right about that," Lorna said, walking into the room, "And before you ask, the cake still needs some time."
"How much?" Ororo asked.
"About ten minutes," Lorna said, "Just figured I'd tell you."
Lorna tilted her head.
"You know, the cape isn't a bad idea," she said, "I should get one of my own."
"Well you can't have mine," Ororo said.
Lorna smiled.
"Hey, Lorna, your boyfriend's trying to eat the icing!"
She let out a frustrated sigh.
"Coming!" she yelled back.
Lorna waved once before ducking back into the kitchen. Scott looked back at Ororo.
"Let me get this straight," he said, "You just have to catch the one in the cape?"
"It was Rahne's idea," Ororo said.
"Dumb idea to have a cape," she said.
"Well we're stuck with it now," Ororo said.
She took off down the hall,
"Catch me if you can!" she said.
For the next few minutes Scott ran after Ororo. She was still much faster than he was though. She'd always been faster. The only thing that slowed her down was when she was told that the cake was ready. Even then she only paused for a moment before running towards the dining room.
Ororo threw her cape off before taking her place at the head of the table. Scott sat down next to her as the cake was brought in. Moira came in from one of the side rooms, probably still cleaning up the mess from when Ororo unwrapped her presents.
Lorna came out with the cake, Sean and Alex close behind her. The icing was chocolate, and Scott counted fourteen candles as Lorna set it down in front of Ororo.
"Happy Birthday Ororo!" she said.
Ororo gave Scott a thumbs-up before blowing out the candles on her cake. Warren moved away at the last minute to make sure that he was standing clear of the smoke: his wings had a tendency to get dirty easily.
From the other side of the table Scott could see Clarice give a tentative smile. She still didn't talk much, but he counted her among his friends now. It was hard to think that at one point he'd thought she was stuck-up. Now she just seemed shy and difficult to get across too.
Well, difficult for everyone except Rahne. She was the only one that Clarice would fully smile at. Scott supposed that Rahne's appetite for life was just too infectious for anyone to resist for long. Somehow or another, she'd worn Clarice down.
Alex got up and handed Ororo a big knife handle first.
"Okay, you get to cut your own cake this year," he said.
She made a face.
"So I turn fourteen and I have to start doing work?" she asked.
"Pretty much," Alex said.
She rolled her eyes but began cutting the cake. She had to push the sweater that she got from her sister off the table. There was also a sloppy card that had been drawn by her nephew. Ororo said that Evan's penmanship was becoming legible. Scott didn't say anything, but he didn't argue.
Someone passed him a slice of chocolate cake. Scott sat down and began cutting some off with his fork.
"Scott," Moira said, "not until everyone has some."
He sighed and pushed at his plate.
"Yeah Scott," Ororo said, "I get to eat some first, dontcha know?"
"Don't be such a pain," Scott said.
She stuck her tongue out at him.
"I'm fourteen today," she said, "I get to do anything I want."
"Like act like you're two?"
"I'm not the one sulking," Ororo said.
"Less talking, more cake cutting," Warren said.
Ororo stuck her tongue out at him, but got back to cutting the cake. Moira sat down at the end of the table. The Professor wheeled in and smiled.
"I see you started without me," he said.
"You said you'd be ten minutes, and that was half an hour ago," Alex said, "You try telling this many kids to wait for cake that long."
"True," the Professor said, amused.
He looked over at Moira.
"I assume that you haven't given her our gift yet?" he asked.
"Not yet," Moira said.
Ororo stopped cutting the cake.
"I get another gift?" she asked, her eyes flashing with excitement.
"Of course you do," the Professor said, "Fourteen is an important birthday-"
"People say that about every year," Ororo said.
"It's true," the Professor said, "But don't interrupt."
"Sorry."
"It's quite alright," the Professor said, "But we thought that, being fourteen, this might be necessary."
She put the knife down.
"What is it?" she asked.
Moira pulled a small box out of her pocket. She passed it to Alex, who passed it to Ororo. Ororo looked at it curiously before opening it up. Even from where he was Scott could see the small necklace with a thunderbolt pendant.
Ororo's face lit up. Scott knew exactly what it meant. A week earlier Ororo had figured out how to command thunder. She'd made it stop in the middle of a storm when a few of the younger kids were scared and crying.
She had been out of it for several days afterwards, but the pride on her face was obvious. The Professor had praised her for it, but he'd told her that it wasn't the power that he'd appreciated. He'd told her that he'd been more impressed with why she'd used it.
Ororo pushed her hair back and clasped the necklace around her neck. Scott felt the weight of his goggles again as Ororo grinned in pride at the symbol of her mutation. Every day she seemed to become prouder of it.
"Thank you!" she said.
"We hoped you'd like it," Moira said.
"I love it," Ororo said.
Scott smiled to himself. He wanted to bottle up the moment he was seeing and store it away for a rainy day. Although he knew that things weren't going to be perfect, not after what he knew about the X-men's mission, in that moment he could believe that they would be.