Chapter 2

When the number of students attending the Institute grew to the point that it no longer made sense to conduct group hand-to-hand combat sessions, Logan had paired off the students for more intensive, customized workouts. Scott and Jean had been teamed up because Logan knew they were the most evenly matched due to the number of years they'd already spent training under him.

It was Wednesday morning, which was Scott and Jean's turn for training. Scott entered the gym to find Jean already pounding a punching bag. She alternated kicks and punches, practicing the kick-boxing moves that they had been working on. She didn't notice him enter, and he assumed she had found her zone.

"You're down here early," he greeted as he walked past her to pick up his equipment from the bench. Jean spun around to face him, eyes wide with surprise, breathing heavily from her workout.

"Don't do that," she scowled at him, wiping the sweat from her brow. "You scared the hell out of me."

He offered her a lopsided grin as an apology. She just rolled her eyes at him and turned back to the bag. Scott started stretching, watching her pound the punching bag with a little more aggression than he was used to seeing from her.

"Punishing it for something?" he teased.

She grunted at him in reply.

She kept at it, and from the way the bag was swinging wildly and creaking on its chain, she was obviously putting some telekinetic force behind her punches.

"Jesus, Jean, take it easy. What did that bag ever do to you? Or are you pretending that you're laying into someone in particular?"

From the glare she shot him he had pretty good idea who she was pretending to beat on. Scott sighed.

"Ok, what did I do?" he asked, which earned him another withering glare. "Are you upset about last night?"

The frenzy of punches stopped abruptly and she turned to face him, hands on her hips. "And whatever would make you think that?" she asked, sarcasm dripping from her words.

"All I did was ask you out, Jean."

"All you did was ask me out? That's the point, Scott! Where the hell did that come from? It was the last thing I was expecting you to do! You ambushed me!" she shouted in exasperation.

"What do you mean, it was the last thing you expected me to do?"

"I mean I didn't think you were interested in me that way. We've always just been friends. Dating never entered the equation. Your question came totally out of left field."

Scott regarded her for a moment, mulling over his reply in frustration. "I thought that I'd made it pretty obvious I was interested in you. I dunno, weren't you tipped of by the fact that I was so jealous of Duncan I wanted to kill him?" he snapped back at her.

She looked as if she'd been slapped. "What are you talking about? I knew you didn't like him, but I didn't think you were jealous of him. I thought you were just watching out for me."

Scott looked at her in disbelief and barked out a laugh. "God, Jean, you are so naïve sometimes it's scary. I've wanted to ask you out for years. I just never thought you'd say yes."

She blinked at him, at a complete loss for words. Scott smirked. He'd managed to render her speechless more times in the past 12 hours than in the past six years. He was rather proud of himself.

She finally found her voice. "Really?"

He looked at her skeptically. "You honestly didn't know?"

She shook her head mutely.

He laughed derisively. "Then you're probably the only one in the Institute, or at school for that matter, who didn't know. My feelings for you are a well-known fact – and a popular topic of conversation among our friends."

"And you didn't see fit to tell me?" she asked indignantly.

"I thought you knew, Jean! I just thought you were choosing to ignore it."

She chewed on that for a minute. "Ok, then why now? Why, all of a sudden, did you decide to ask me out?"

He shrugged, not quite sure himself. "It was a combination of things. Like the fact that I was just sick to death of not saying anything. And the fact that I wasn't prepared to watch you get involved with another guy without telling you how I felt -"

"Wait a minute, what other guy? I haven't been seeing anyone."

"No, but I figured it would only be a matter of time. There isn't a shortage of guys at Bayville High who would like the chance to date you."

That made her blush.

"And then there was the other day, out in the snow," Scott told her, lowering his voice to a more intimate level, taking a couple of steps towards her. "I thought I saw something in your eyes, in the way that you looked at me....I thought that maybe you were beginning to feel the same way about me."

They locked eyes, and neither could look away. "If you don't want to do this, Jean, then tell me now. We'll pretend this conversation never happened, and we'll go back to just being friends. I've told you before; I'll always be your best friend, so you don't need to worry about that. I just need to know what you want."

He held his breath, waiting for her to answer. Finally she smiled shyly, and he thought he'd faint from the relief.

"I want to see where this goes," she told him softly, and admitting it to herself for the first time. "I...I think we owe it to ourselves. We owe it to our friendship."

Scott grinned at her.

That's how Logan found them, standing a few paces apart, smiling at each other. He looked at them suspiciously.

"What're you up to?" he growled at them.

"Nothing," they replied instantly, in perfect unison. They'd turned to look at him when he'd spoken, wearing twin expressions of innocence – looks that they'd perfected within days of meeting each other. Logan knew that could only mean one thing – trouble. Then they looked back at each other and burst out laughing.

"Yeah, right," Logan muttered under his breath, eyeing them warily.



*****



"Hey, Scott, wait up!"

Scott turned around to see Kurt jogging down the hall towards him, dodging open lockers and groups of students.

"Some of us are planning on going to the all-night movie marathon at the Majestic Friday night," Kurt told him. "Wanna come?"

"Can't," Scott said simply.

"What, have you got a hot date or something?" Kurt teased.

"Something like that," Scott agreed, unable to keep the smile off his face. Kurt noticed immediately.

"Wait a minute, you do have a hot date, don't you?" Kurt accused.

"Who's got a hot date?" Evan asked as he approached, having overheard Kurt's comment.

"Scott does, and he didn't tell us," Kurt said, the hurt evident in his voice.

"Hey, way to go, man!" Evan cheered, punching Scott's arm. "Who's the lucky lady?"

Scott's face split into a huge grin, and he looked away.

"No way," Kurt gasped in amazement as comprehension hit. There was only one girl who could be responsible for the look on Scott's face. "You're going on a date with Jean?"

"Jean? Like, our Jean? The tall pretty redhead you've had the hots for, like forever? Way to go, dude!" Evan laughed, high-fiving the older boy.

"And it's a real date?" Kurt asked, still surprised.

"Yup. I asked her last night."

"That's awesome!" Kurt exclaimed. From Kurt's first day at the Institute, he'd watched Scott pine over Jean, and it made him very happy to know that the two of them were finally getting their acts together.

Scott spotted Kitty and Rogue approaching, and desperately tried to make an escape before Kurt could fill them in on the conversation. But Kurt had other ideas, and grabbed hold of Scott's arm to prevent him from running.

"You're kidding!" Kitty squealed when Kurt told her the news.

"Why are y'all acting so surprised?" Rogue asked, looking supremely bored and unimpressed. "Hell, we knew it was just a matter of time before they hooked up."

"I think it's, like, totally cool!" Kitty gushed, giving Scott a quick hug. "You're, like, so perfect for each other. Oh, this is gonna be so great!"

Scott tried unsuccessfully to suppress his smile. He was just too damn happy to care.

~~

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