"To think, I stepped away from this interesting life to tend on boring board room meetings and a press tour. Whatever was I thinking?"

A poignant sip of coffee.

"Ever the scholar. Send me along that report when you have a moment, I'll digest what you were unable to."

An equally long sip.

"Normal indeed. I've tried to keep up but the world is a busy place and the news hardly encapsulates it. Did I read something about a werewolf problem?"

"I'd be shocked to find you let it burn down the other several times the property was levelled, though I won't ask for details in that decision. Has your pet project been shaping up, darling?"

"Of course I was, though I'm glad to see the school had not burned down in my absence. I had feared the worst."

quill

I DON'T KNOW I'M JUST NOT USED TO PEOPLE SHOUTING MY NAME

quill

I DIDN'T DO IT, I PROMISE!

<

A sip of wine to chase the thought. "Beyond just children. We've both seen the explosive results of the Summers genealogy and I can assure you the Frost family line is just as prone to implosion, just quieter about it."

<

Another small mouthful, then brilliant eyes fell upon him.

"That's your vision for our future as mutants. I want to know what you foresee for us. You and me, Scott Summers. Were I to fall into your arms this night and become your perfect, white-picket fence wife, what would that amount to?"

>

<

"You've done much thinking on it. So what does that future, our future, look like in your idealized version?"

<

She sliced her knife through the singular slice of tomato and artfully crafted mound of cheese in one smooth motion, stabbing each with her fork in turn. A small mouthful, when combined, which she chewed without savouring.

>

<

"Scott, it would be petty of me to not forgive at this point. Not simply because of my own part in what happened, but because of what we've been through, what we've done together. Krakoa was about second chances. We never got ours there, but that doesn't mean the idea is gone, too."

>

Mine.

<

She played councillor, sure, but that didn't make her an expert in her own relationships.

"But a lot has happened between then and now. And here we are, in the same place. Perhaps it's telling that we're starting it off with this conversation, starting where it ended originally."

<

This was a conversation to be had, not to be thought.

"I did what I did because I blamed you. Because I deserved better. I still stand by that train of thought. Less so by the actions that were borne by it."

>

<

There was no falter in her words and her gaze was as striking as ever. "Do not forgive me that so easily. Do not condemn yourself as Atlas and take on the entire weight of the world so willingly."

<

"The corruption of the Phoenix may have made me act, to breach your trust in me, but the longing that fuelled that act had been brewing for some time. It wasn't a difficult nudge for a cosmic force to do. You were, as you always are, focused, and claws of jealousy had their hold on me."

>