When Scott Met Annie

Chapter 18: In the Shadow of the Phoenix

The days were getting shorter and colder as winter set in, but that didn't seem to bother Annie and Scott in the least. Not when it gave them an excuse to curl up in a good blanket.

Which was also, conveniently enough, the perfect excuse for Annie to get Scott to actually tell her anything about his family.

Annie knew that Scott thrived on a plan. On consistency. On expectations and responsibilities. And so she had established a new rule that she insisted he follow — "My house; my rules" — and told him that before bed, every night, when they crawled under the covers together and he wrapped her up in his arms — he had to tell her something about his family, and she would tell him something about hers.

It had gone slowly at first.

"I've got a little brother," he said the first night, which was news to Annie. After all, she knew generally who the X-Men were, and Cyclops was the leader, but she didn't know the personal interplay and relationships. She hadn't known he had a brother.

She stared at him, her lips slightly parted, clearly waiting for more of an explanation, before he nodded slowly, almost to himself. "His name's Alex. I haven't seen him in a while; I think he's still in space."

"You're not close?" she asked softly.

He leaned back so that he was propped up against the pillows, and she rested her head on his chest, thinking it might be easier if he didn't have to look at her and could just talk to the ceiling or something. "Not really," he admitted. "We were separated when we were kids after our parents died. And by the time we reconnected, we were kind of our own people."

She kept her hand on his chest as she listened to what he had to say and could hear the regret ringing in every word. "He's still your brother," she said. "And I know you love him," she was sure to add — because he looked like he needed to hear that reminder.

"Yeah, I do," he said quietly, though when he didn't say anything else for a while, she picked her head up to look at him.

Well, she was making small progress anyway.

She took a deep breath and decided that a few sentences about his little brother was at least a step in the right direction. So she could let him off the hook for anything further. For the moment. "Alright. So, I see the brother I didn't know you have and raise you the fact that you're going to meet my nephew, Aman, come Christmas when Theresa and Craig come up here," she said.

"They can't make Thanksgiving?"

"No," Annie said, though she was smirking to herself that Scott had remembered her sister was going to try and come up earlier than that. "But I think you'll like him. Just be warned: he's very shy. He'll probably take the entire visit to warm up to you enough to say hello."

Scott nodded. "I'll try not to be too insulted," he said with a smirk.

She shook her head at him and decided not to say anything about how he could so easily talk about her family but not his own. She wasn't going to poke that, not when she had a plan to get more information out of him. She could be patient — to a point, anyway.

"He has a real thing about dinosaurs right now," she said. "So that'll probably help."

"You think I should bribe him with dinosaur toys?" Scott asked with a teasing little smile.

She laughed at him and then kissed him. "If you think you need the help."

His smile widened at that before he simply kissed her into the pillows in response, pulling her tight to him until she couldn't help but laugh at him.