Work Text:
Fear of Flying
By Staramber
He looked at the paper folded in his hand to see if it had changed in the last two minuets. Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice told him that the details of his execution were written on the paper. When he looked it was only a name and an address written in neat black script.
She was called Amanda. She was an upper middle class, well adjusted child with mediocre grades and a developing power. There was nothing remarkable about this child (at least nothing he hadn't seen before) or what he was about to do. It was a simple preliminary interview, the kind that every child had to go through. Mr Summers would quietly explain to the parents the benefits of sending their child away wile Dr Grey would talk with the child. Only this time Miss Munroe would be coming with him. If it wasn't bad enough that he had to do this interview without her, the Professor had also suggested that they should take the jet to Chicago. Thankfully had managed to convince the Professor to let them take a normal flight, flight 742 to be precise.
They all tried to reassure him. A single day hadn't gone by when he was told his fears where rational and justified. Rational and justified or not it still wasn't right for him to feel afraid. He was supposed to be helping them with the loss of their friend and team mate. He was supposed to put on a brave face and help them carry on as usual not make matters worse by being unable to do a simple interview. He thought it wouldn't be long before they realised how weak he was and throw him off the team. In his life he trusted that he would always be two things; a devoted boyfriend and the leader of the X-men. He couldn't bear to lose both.
Musing on who they would get to replace him he threw his head backwards. His hair, which he had let grow too long out of carelessness, fell down his dusky grey shirt. He pulled down on his tie to ease the tightening in his throat and exhaled slowly. Ororo brought her head to the side. Scott was dreading the `sympathetic' comment that she was about to make.
"You know you'll end up looking like Logan."
She ran her fingers through his hair before strolling away. He grinned and lifted his head to watch the last passengers getting of the plane. They seamed so calm and happy after spending so long trapped in a metal box above the clouds. He wondered if they knew just how many things could go wrong. He wondered if they had ever seen it happen.
He was distracted by a small white snowflake fluttering down past the window, watching it spiral down and flutter with the slightest gust of wind. By the time it reached the runway it was joined by thousands of others falling with a sudden intensity.
"Ladies and gentlemen we regret to inform you that due to the freak weather all further flights have been cancelled."
Most people turned in surprise to look out of the windows. Outside a thick layer of snow covered the runway, snow that hadn't been there moments before. Reluctantly they slowly started to leave, passing on their way a man in red glasses who was smiling to himself. Ororo pushed her way through the crowds to where Scott was sitting with their bags.
"Where did you go?"
"I went to the bathroom. We should go, she can wait."
He smiled at her and grabbed their bags. Ororo was right, for once in his life they could all wait.
The End