Sorry for the long hiatus, everyone. My only excuse is that my muses were booted out of my head by assorted other ones, but now X-Men is sneaking back onto the scene. If any of you are fans of the Exiles comics, I also wrote a short fic for that universe so be sure to check that one out.

Right, enough wasting time. Thanks to everyone who's still with me, I hope this update will make it all worth it.

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A month had passed and things had slipped back to relative normality, or whatever passed for as much at the Xavier Institute. Tabitha was better and attending school once again, slacking off with the new recruits, and attending parties as if the past few months never took place. Scott and Jean had done more than made up, they were back together and as close as ever it seemed. The only thing that had changed was the rumors that were circling among the other students at Xavier's. Terrible, damaging rumors as far as Scott was concerned. Rumors like-

"Could you pass the syrup, Scotty-bear?"

"Oh, and could I have the butter, Snuggle-Numpkins?"

Scott gritted his teeth, handing the syrup to Kitty and the butter to Kurt. Across the table, Amara was trying to hide a giggle and Ray was making no effort whatsoever to disguise his amused grin. Ever since Amara and Kurt had seen Tabitha resting her head against Scott while he helped her with her homework, he'd been labeled as a secret sweetie. He still gave out orders in the danger room and pestered the students to be careful with their powers and to remember to do their homework, but whenever he tried to be too serious someone would drop a comment to remind him that they all knew about his snuggly little skeleton in the closet.

Tabitha hopped her way into the kitchen on one foot, her headphones turned up so loud that the music filled the entire room. She paused to grab a piece of toast off of Bobby's plate before going to the fridge for some orange juice. She barely looked at Scott, lost in her own world he assumed, before heading out to the car (Lance's – she'd stolen it again, but promised to return it today) with Amara shoving the rest of her pancakes into her mouth to dash after her.

"Good morning, Scott."

Jean came up behind Scott, placing a hand on his shoulder to give it a friendly squeeze before finding a free chair to sit in at the table. Scott gave her a smile, echoed by conspiratorial giggles from Kitty and Kurt.

"Morning, Jean."

"Are we still meeting after school to study for the history test?"

Scott sighed to himself, though he did his best not to show his slight disappointment too much. "Right, the history test. I almost forgot about that. Yeah, I just have to give some of the others a lift home and then I'll meet you in the school library, sound good?"

Jean nodded, swallowing a mouth full of cereal before dabbing at the corner of her mouth with her napkin. "Sounds good to me. Oh, and uh… Duncan will be joining us today too."

The sound of a spoon hitting the table made everyone start slightly. Scott mumbled an apology before turning away from his breakfast to look at Jean. "Duncan? You mean you're tutoring him again?" Sometimes Scott wondered whether Jean's inability to ever hold a grudge against someone was a good or a bad thing.

"He asked me last week, and he really has been trying to be more of a gentleman. And you know how hard it must have been for him to come out and ask me to give him some extra help…" Jean trailed off, fully aware of how unhappy this made Scott. She gave him a sheepish smile. "He can just be a bit of a jerk sometimes, but he's not all bad."

Scott wanted to disagree. Very loudly. Perhaps even with a few inappropriate words and names. Instead he took one last bite of his toast and stood up.

"Ah ghss ah cn't blme oo foh-"

"Uh, Scott?" Jean gestured to his mouth, reminding him that it was full. Slightly embarrassed that he'd tried to talk before swallowing (that wasn't like him…) he paused to finish what was in his mouth before finishing.

"I guess I can't blame you for wanting to help him. He does need it, after all."

Jean gave him a half-hearted look at the small jab, but said nothing. After all, it was fairly true, but Jean didn't like to hear anyone making fun of anyone. She finished her breakfast as Scott went outside to warm up the car, secretly dreading the upcoming afternoon.

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"Oh, here they come!"

Amara giggled as she leaned over to peer out the windows in her fourth period class, Tabby joining her a moment later. Mr. Sullivan was too busy writing out some overly-elaborate equation on the board to really notice the girls whispering to one another. Tabby and Amara watched as the boy's gym class filtered onto the track just outside.

"It's too bad Duncan's such a jerk. He's so hot!"

Tabby gave Amara a look of mock-surprise. "Why Amara, tell me you're not reducing that fine man to a piece of meat!" They had to hold their hands to their mouths to keep from snickering too loudly. Amara turned back to the blackboard as the teacher started talking again, but Tabby paused as she spotted a familiar pair of red glasses.

Scott.

They'd been much closer the past month. He would help her out with her homework from time to time (much to Amara's teasing glee) and hadn't gotten quite so angry at her when she'd tried to get out of early morning training exercises. All in all, he'd given her almost no reasons to dislike him at all, and every reason to make her feel just the opposite. Maybe it was just because she had some idea of who he was beyond the title of "leader", but either way she looked forward to talking to him every day. Maybe even a little too much. She couldn't let herself fantasize about a guy like that, one she could never hope to have.

He and Jean are together again, remember? You even congratulated them on it.

"Ahem. Miss Smith?"

Tabby snapped her head forward, eyes wide. She glanced at Amara to confirm the fact that yes, she had just spaced out entirely.

"Uh, yes?"

"I was asking if you were enjoying the view."

The class erupted into laughter and Tabby felt her cheeks turn bright red. She sunk a bit lower in her seat, muttering an apology. The teacher nodded, telling her not to let it happen again, before calling on someone else in the class to answer his question. Amara took the moment to twist around in her seat.

"Don't worry, I get stuck watching Scott sometimes too. He's pretty good looking, especially from here. You can't hear him giving out any orders." She giggled, turning around again before the teacher scolded her too.

You don't know the half of it…

It was then that a wicked little thought sprouted in Tabitha's mind. It was small, not entirely formed, but as she first tried to pluck it out and throw it away, she found it had already rooted itself there pretty deep. An evil little thought that she found herself being ashamed of even as she considered it.

What if you could get Scott to leave Jean for you?

Her first response, naturally, was to try and shrug it off. Too many problems with that idea, not the least of which being that it was a bitchy thing to do, even for her. But she couldn't just ignore it. The idea changed, twisted, started to explain itself to her while making the whole thing sound much more attractive.

You don't have to do anything to Jean, just put in more of an effort to get Scott to notice you. It's not the sort of thing you have to skankify yourself up for – Scott would only just tell you to put on more clothes. No, just find out what he likes in a girl and go from there…

When she put it to herself that way, it wasn't so bad. She wouldn't be breaking them up or anything, just trying to get Scott's attention. If he decided to act on it, it certainly wasn't her fault.

So what does Scott find attractive?

Jean.

No, aside from that!

… Brains?

Suddenly reenergized, Tabby tuned back into the class. She read back over the notes in the text book, listening carefully to Mr. Sullivan's droning voice as most of the class started to nod off. Next time he asked a question, Tabitha shot her hand into the air. It was enough to make Amara look back at her in surprise.

"Miss Smith? You have an answer for me?"

She nodded. "If you divide each side by two, then that leaves you with X on the right and 12 on the left, so X equals 12."

The teacher blinked a few times in surprise. "That's… that's correct. Good work, Miss Smith."

Tabitha beamed as Amara mimed silent clapping for her before they both turned back to their books.

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"Would you guys quiet down back there?"

Tabitha, Jubilee, Amara and Bobby froze in a tangled mess of limbs and surprised faces, before bursting into laughter again. Bobby had made an ice cube which he was threatening to put down the back of the others' shirts and it had erupted into a shoving and screaming fight. Kurt sat in the front seat with Scott, trying to hide his laughter. The stoplight in front of them turned green, and Scott turned around with a heavy sigh to watch the road. "You kids really need to learn some-"

"Responsibility. You're X-Men now and blah blah blah. Is that what you were going to say?"

Jubilee gave Scott a mean smirk in his rearview mirror, her body language signaling that she was about to shift into full bitching mode. Scott braced himself. Some of the newer recruits seemed to like showing off to one another by mouthing off to him whenever they could, and it looked like this could turn into another game of 'who can insult Scott the most.' Scott was used to it, as annoyed as he was by it, and was prepared to hand out stern looks and just try to get them all home all the faster. Jubilee looked like she was about to say something else, when Tabitha put a hand on her arm.

"Hey, you know, maybe he's right. This car isn't even meant to hold this many, and the top's down. It'd be easy for one of us to fall out if we keep jumping around."

There was a very long pause.

"Ah, no! All right, who are you and what have you done with Tabby!" Kurt pointed accusingly as her between the two front seats while Scott tried to both stare at her through the overhead mirror while still watching the road.

"Hey, Fuzzy, even the best of us need to know when to stop, you know?" Tabby shrugged at him, trying not to grin too much. That had gotten Scott's attention all right. She smiled the rest of the way home, even as Jubilee pouted at not being able to torment Scott. When the group piled out of the car, Tabby deliberately took a bit longer in hopes that Scott would try to talk to her. She was almost completely out by the time Scott reached back to put a hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks… for that. I know she's your friend-"

Tabitha shrugged, giving Scott a lopsided grin. "She's going to get herself killed one of these days if she doesn't learn how to tone it down a bit. I heard about how she and the gang took off with the van and the jet before. If she won't listen to you, I figured maybe she'd listen to me."

Standing beside Scott's door now, Tabitha leaned forward to rest her arms on the side of the car.

"I hate to say it, but I think you're right."

"Why do you hate to say it, eh Scooter?"

"Because I'm the leader, and in a fight they have to listen to me or else they could get hurt."

"Yeah, well, I think they like to tell themselves that you're like that just because you think you're better than all of them." She chose not to add in that she herself used to think like that at the beginning.

Scott looked hurt. "Better than them? You know, there are days I wish I didn't have all this responsibility, you know? Sometimes, I wish I didn't have to worry so much about setting an example for all of you, doing everything from eating right and exercising more to getting good grades and taking the time to make sure that everyone's following the rules… I'm about to turn 18, Tabby, and I haven't even had time to enjoy being a kid yet." As if suddenly realizing that he'd said all this in front of Tabitha, Scott leaned forward and held his temples in his hands.

Tabby bit her lower lip. Scott was always so good at bottling up his feelings that none of them, not even Jean, got to see him like this often. A stab of guilt over her irresponsibility before hit Tabby in the chest, almost making her wince in pain. Scott really was just trying to live up to everyone's expectations for him…

"Scott…" She leaned in a bit closer, lowering her voice from its usually over-enthusiastic tone to a more serious, soft one. "You're doing a great job, really. Jubilee and the others, they just don't get where you're coming from. They're too young to think about anyone other than themselves. They'll grow up someday, and then they'll be thankful for everything you're doing now. Really, I know. I never realized before that you weren't just trying to be a bully, but it's just because I never really thought of anyone but myself, you know? But I'm trying to change that, and all because of you." She reached out a hand, placing it on his shoulder.

A jolt leapt through the both of them. Neither one said anything, but both felt it. The feel of that simple touch brought to mind the thoughts they'd both been having lately, without either one understanding that it was mutual. But now, as they both tensed at the same moment, something passed between them. Scott looked up at Tabby and saw that she was really concerned for him. He'd affected her, and what she'd said before in the car… she'd done that for him. Though Tabby couldn't look into Scott's eyes in return, she could tell by his change in body language that he really wasn't as naturally responsible as everyone thought he was. She'd seen boys tense like that with her before enough to know what it meant. He'd thought about her. He'd thought about her in very irresponsible ways that somehow, she hadn't thought him capable of.

This was all unspoken, and between them they understood just what one another had seen. Without either one realizing what was happening, they began moving in closer to one another. Tabby felt her eyes drifting shut in the prelude of a kiss, Scott's hand reaching up towards her as-

Bamf.

"Scott! I tried to stop them! They've taken the jet!"