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Chapter 6

A soft knocking on her bedroom door woke Jean Saturday morning. She rolled over and glanced at her alarm clock, which read a few minutes before 10 o'clock. The knocking sounded again, and Jean could hear soft voices chattering back and forth in the hall.

"Go 'way," Jean called, before burying her face in her pillow.

"Like, come on, Jean. Let us in," Kitty called back.

"Why can't we just leave her alone?" Rogue pleaded with Kitty in a tired sounding voice.

"Because it's, like, totally killing me – I've got to know what happened last night."

"Will you please let me go back to sleep?" she shouted, exasperated.

"Like, no way – it's not that early. Jean, please let us in. We just want to know how your date went," Kitty implored.

Jean growled resignedly and used her TK to unlock the door. At the soft *click* of the lock disengaging, Kitty burst into the room, dragging an embarrassed looking Rogue behind her.

"Sorry, Jean. Ah tried to make her leave ya alone," Rogue apologized and Kitty leapt onto Jean's bed and started bouncing up and down excitedly.

Jean smiled at Rogue to show her appreciation of her efforts, futile though they may have been.

"So? Like, spill!" Kitty ordered with a grin. Jean propped herself up against the headboard and glared at the younger girl.

"Spill what, exactly?" she asked, still annoyed at having her room invaded so early on a weekend.

Kitty rolled her eyes. "Yeah, like, right! What happened on your date last night? Where'd you go, what'd you do?"

Jean smiled in spite of herself. Kitty's excitement was somewhat contagious.

"We went for dinner, and then to a movie."

"And then?"

"What makes you think there was a 'and then'?" Rogue asked Kitty suspiciously.

"Because they, like, didn't get home until after 1:00, and the movie couldn't have been that long."

"And then we went skating at The Glen. But since Scott had you steal my skates from my room yesterday, you probably already knew that."

"Ooooo – I love The Glen. It's, like, totally romantic!" Kitty squealed, ignoring Jean's accusation.

Now it was Rogue's turn to roll her eyes. "Ah'm sorry, but Ah don't see anythin' romantic about freezin' yer butt off while tryin' not to fall on it."

Jean laughed. She was really glad that she and Rogue had agreed to a truce – fragile though it may be. The girl had a wonderfully dry sense of humor when she chose to show it, and Jean was developing a deep sense of appreciation for it.

Kitty glared at Rogue, then turned hopeful eyes back to Jean. "And?"

"And what?" Jean asked innocently, knowing full well what Kitty wanted to know.

"And….? Did you….? Did he….?" Kitty asked leadingly.

Jean was determined not to make this easy for the other girl, so she sat in silence, watching Kitty with questioning eyes. Rogue snickered.

"Ugh! You can be, like, so frustrating sometimes!"

Jean grinned mischievously, and Kitty gasped. "Oh my god, you did! You, like, totally kissed! I knew it!"

Jean blushed, but was unable to keep the smile off her face. "Ok, ok, ok," Jean said, holding up a hand to quiet Kitty. "Yes, we kissed."

Kitty squealed again and hurled herself into Jean's arms, hugging her happily. "Oh my god, this is so cool! I'm, like, so happy for you guys," she gushed. "Was it a really good kiss?"

Jean blushed again and averted her eyes.

"Oh, from the looks of it, Ah'd say it was pretty good," Rogue teased.

Jean sighed, trying her damndest not to sound dreamy – but she failed miserably, and the other two girls started giggling uncontrollably. Even Jean couldn't keep from laughing at herself. Finally she regained her composure and considered how to answer Kitty's question.

"It was…perfect," Jean finally said, her voice barely above a whisper. She unconsciously lifted her fingers to touch her lips, remembering the feeling of Scott's kiss.

"So are you, like, officially boyfriend and girlfriend now?" Kitty asked.

Jean blinked in surprise. "You know what? We never even discussed it," she admitted. "I mean, I would assume so, but I don't know for sure."

"If Ah were you, Ah'd make sure that got cleared up this mornin'," Rogue suggested with a smirk.

"Yeah yeah, I will. Now go find someone else to torment so I can get up and shower in peace," Jean ordered as she climbed out of bed and ushered the two younger girls out of her room. "I'll see you guys downstairs."

Jean sighed when she closed the door, and walked into her ensuite bathroom. The events of the night before kept playing out in her mind, and she couldn't stop smiling.

"Oh, you've got it bad, girl," she muttered to her reflection in the mirror. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes were literally sparkling. She couldn't ever remember seeing herself looking so completely happy. Jean climbed into the shower, and still the grin wouldn't leave her face.

*****

"We hear your date with Jean went, like, really well," Kitty told Scott a while later. She was perched on the kitchen counter, munching on an apple.

Scott shot her a look, trying hard to keep from smiling. "Oh? Who told you that?"

"Your girlfriend," Rogue chimed in.

"My girlfriend?"

"Well, yeah. Aren't you two like, official now?" Kitty asked.

Scott pondered that for a moment. "I don't know," he admitted. "We didn't talk about it."

Rogue smirked. "That's pretty much what Jean said."

"But she said she, like, assumed that you were," Kitty added.

"She did?"

"Who did what?" Jean asked as she entered the kitchen in search of breakfast. She glanced at Scott and smiled, blushing slightly. "Hey," she greeted him softly as she turned away, unable to hold his gaze.

"Kitty was just tellin' Scott that you assumed you and he were an official couple now," Rogue blurted out before running out of the kitchen, knowing Kitty would want to kill her.

"Oh, you, like, traitor!" Kitty squealed as she chased after her friend.

Scott chuckled as she girls disappeared down the hall. He turned to look at Jean, who was busying herself with the toaster, her back to him.

"So, are we?" he asked finally, uncomfortable with the silence that had descended on them.

"Hmmm?" Jean asked distractedly, not turning to look at him. Scott sighed in frustration and walked over to her, taking her arm to gently turn her in his direction. Before he realized what he was doing, he leaned down and kissed her soundly on the lips. After a half second of surprise that left her immobilized, she kissed him back. Her arms wound their way around his neck, his arms around her torso. He ushered her backwards a step so that he could gently lean her against the counter and press the length of his body against hers. They maintained the embrace for several long minutes before Scott finally pulled back and looked at her with a crooked grin.

"So now that we've gotten over the initial awkwardness of the post-first-date morning after, or so to speak, can we stop acting so weird?" he asked softly.

Jean giggled and nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

"Just one more thing before I let you go," Scott told her. Jean nodded for him to continue. "Are we officially a couple now?"

She smiled and kissed him again. When she pulled away she smiled. "Yeah, I think it's safe to say we're officially a couple."

Scott grinned. "So, does that mean I get to kiss you like that anytime I want?"

She smacked his arm lightly. "Only within reason, Lover Boy," she teased. "We do have reputations to uphold, you know."

"Screw that. I was kind of hoping we could create new reputations for ourselves," he told her, waggling his eyebrows suggestively as he leaned in for another kiss. Jean giggled as she turned her head away just in time for his kiss to land chastely on her cheek.

"Y'know, if you keep up this reckless behavior, you're not going to be able to maintain your image as our conservative, uptight, anal retentive team leader. The others might realize that you not only know how to have fun, but that you can be downright crazy sometimes," she whispered conspiratorially, amusement flashing in her green eyes.

"Yeah, just like they may finally figure out that you're not nearly the goody two-shoes some of the others think you are," he smirked.

She shot him a mock-offended glare. "And just what are you implying, Mr. Summers? I never get into trouble, and I never do anything I'm not supposed to do."

Scott snorted. "No, you're just lucky enough not to get caught."

"Po-tay-to, po-tah-to," she quipped with a wink, smoothly disengaging herself from Scott's embrace as the toaster dinged.

Scott leaned one hip against the counter and watched Jean spread peanut butter on her toast. "Any plans for today?" he asked.

She shook her head as she licked a glob of peanut butter off her finger. "You?"

"Nope. So, do you maybe want to just hang out together?"

"There's a thought," she grinned at him. "But I have another idea. Why don't you, Evan and Kurt meet me and the girls outside in, say, an hour and a half?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "Why?" he asked slowly.

"Have you looked out the window? It snowed a ton over night. I thought it would be fun for us to act really immature and build snowmen, or something like that," she replied, waving a careless hand in the air at his distrust of her. He folded his arms across his chest and stared at her, his doubt clearly etched on his face.

"Scott, what's wrong? Don't you trust me?" she asked, innocent eyes beseeching.

He smirked. "I know you, Red, and I know you're up to something. But, if it'll make you happy, we'll meet you girls outside."

She flashed him a breath-taking smile, and he knew that no matter what happened, it would be worth it if she looked at him that way again.

~~

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