Sins of the Father

Chapter 15: Ickle Summerses

While several of the X-Men were out in space dealing with Shi'ar, however, there were a few still in Westchester to greet Alex when he arrived with a grin that looked too wide to be allowed.

"Heard you were having trouble, Scott," Alex said, draping an arm around Scott's shoulders as soon as he was through the door, still with that same grin, though when Scott just rolled his eyes and pushed his brother off at the shoulders, it seemed to get wider, somehow, even though that didn't seem to be physically possible.

"This isn't a joke, Alex," Scott said, shaking his head.

"No, I know," Alex swore, though this time he moved around so he could get a better look at his older brother, grinning and shaking his head at the glasses-free look. "That is gonna take some serious getting used to."

"Must be hard for you," Scott said dryly.

Alex laughed outright at that and slapped his hand against Scott's back. "Come on. Let's head down to the Danger Room. I think I got a few ideas."

The first sessions with Alex did not go well.

It wasn't that Alex was necessarily a bad teacher, but when it came to his own powers, and trying to describe them to help Scott, he came up woefully short. He didn't know what to say when it came to turning them on except to "focus."

Which, considering who he was talking to, was absolutely the worst advice he could give.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Scott shot back, clearly frustrated.

Alex held up both hands. "Woah, hey, okay. Never said you weren't focusing. Geez, Scott. You'd think I insulted your school or something."

Scott ran a hand through his hair and let out all his breath. He knew that Alex was trying, and he knew that he couldn't have been the easiest of students to deal with. He was, after all, working against decades of trying to turn his powers off.

Well, he'd gotten what he wanted.

"Have you gotten them to work at all since they turned off?" Alex asked, stopping the training altogether to lean against the wall and simply chat with his big brother, since clearly, at this rate, nothing was going to change. Not with Scott as frustrated as he was, and not with Alex at a loss for what he could do to help him focus in the right direction, instead of wherever his head was at.

Scott shook his head and mirrored his brother's body language, sitting down about a foot from him with a heavy thud. "Not even a glow."

Alex frowned at that, all of the good humor gone entirely. "And ... that is just an extra level of problem, since you never had to turn it on." He let out a breath and gave it his best attempt to look serious. "I'll be honest. I never thought you'd have performance issues, big bro." Scott gave him the driest look humanly possible as Alex held up both hands in his defense. "It's a joke, Scott. A joke? I thought you knew how to identify those now."

"Nothing about this is funny."

"A little bit is," Alex said, trying to tease. "I mean. Come on. All these years working with kids trying to get a handle on things and just now you get around to it yourself? If that doesn't sum up you and your entirely selfless ... everything, I don't know what does."

Scott shook his head to himself as Alex dropped his arm around his shoulders, jostling him. Yeah. He could see the irony of it ... he just didn't appreciate it. All this time, and he'd finally just accepted that he had no way to control it without the visor — and now? It just wasn't something he thought he'd ever have to deal with at this point in his life.