Challenge fic: Wooden Heart

[lilacsigil]

Written for the Letters challenge on jeannie_x_slim. This is set in comicsverse, immediately after the Dark Phoenix Saga. Jean is dead and Scott has left the team.

Rated PG. Features Piotr/Kitty and Scott/Jean.
Thanks to st_aurafina for making today Write A Fic Day, and for other essential assistance.



Wooden Heart


"Piotr and Kitty, sitting in a tree!" Kitty chanted.

"We are not in the tree, Katya, we are under it."

Kitty giggled. "It's a rhyme, dummy." She wriggled upright on his lap and brushed leaves out of his hair. "You probably don't have it in Russia. It goes, 'Piotr and Kitty, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.' If you kissed in a tree in Russia, your lips would probably freeze together."

"It is a big danger." Piotr nodded solemnly, but gave himself away by smiling when Kitty laughed.

"You should definitely take advantage of a New York summer, then." Kitty tilted her face up to Piotr's, and his arms pulled her closer.

It was a long time before they spoke again, and their private little patch of shade had nearly vanished beneath the hot morning sun.

"Katya, your skin will sunburn."

"Not as fast as you will!" Kitty stroked a finger down Piotr's arm, already sunburnt from just such a morning earlier in the week. "Come on, it's shadier over there."

Piotr grumbled, but he was already sick of the Wolverine's habit of slapping his sunburn as a greeting, so he got to his feet and pulled Kitty with him. He shaded his eyes and looked back across the lawn to the house, but Kitty darted away, deeper into the trees where the thick branches let only distorted dapples of light through. Her hair shone in the dimness, and Piotr knew there was nothing in the world he would rather do than follow her.

When he caught up, though, Kitty was squinting at a tree trunk, and her face had turned from delight to sorrow. She took Piotr's hand in silence, and kept her gaze on the tree. Carved into the trunk were four letters, inside a heart:

JG
SS

"They were really happy together, weren't they?" Kitty's voice was trembling as she ran her fingers over the initials.

"These letters, they are very well carved. They must have used their powers. Look how the heart is angled on the turns – Cyclops. And the letters, they are stamped into the tree, not cut."

Kitty smiled, a little. "Scott probably would have turned this into a lecture on teamwork. If he wasn't too embarrassed by it, anyway."

"I do not think he was so embarrassed around Jean. She brought out-" Piotr searched for the right word. "Passion. And he could make her plan ahead. To think about her actions. They were a good team." Piotr nodded firmly, but Kitty suddenly pulled away from him and folded her arms.

"Piotr, do you think – if they'd known what would happen, would they still have fallen in love? I don't think I would. Fall in love, I mean, if I knew for sure how little time was left."

"Why would you not? There is no guarantee, especially for the mutants."

Kitty frowned. "I don't mean I wouldn't take a risk. I mean, we're both on the team, and I'm here with you. But where do you draw the line between brave and stupid? I saw Scott after – after it happened."

"After Jean killed herself to save everyone."

"Yeah. He was all closed up. He didn't even talk, really. Do you think he'd want to be like that?" She stepped forward, suddenly, looking up into Piotr's face. "Does he think it was worth it?"

"Yes." Piotr did not hesitate. "They loved each other. That does not vanish." He touched the letters on the tree. "It is here, and in them. In all of us, who knew them. In the end, all of us are dust. They created something good – you did not see them together, Katya. You did not see Scott smile, or see Jean's gentleness."

"She was nice to me when they came to Chicago. And, yeah, they left their mark, but Scott's still out there, somewhere, by himself. I think that's worse. To have it, then it gets taken away." She traced around the heart that enclosed the letters. "I wouldn't want to be left behind. It's easier to be brave when it's just for a little while, just long enough to win a battle or save a life. Not going on and on. Scott didn't want to be around everything that they had made together. Like to us it's a memory, or a feeling, but to him their love was alive, in him all the time, and now it's gone."

"Katya, do you love your grandparents?"

"Yes, of course!"

"They must be quite old by now. Will you still love them when they are dead?"

"Yes, but - it's not the same. Family isn't a choice."

"Is love so much a choice to you?"

"Yes! I mean, the feeling isn't, but you can encourage it, or let it slip away. Scott and Jean wouldn't let go, and now look."

Piotr took Kitty's hands, which were now pushing his chest to make her point, and held them firmly between his. "What Jean loved, I think, was not some essence of Scott. She loved things he did, and things he said, and people he cared for. He loved the same in her. I cannot think that one of them would want to extinguish the other, and everything they are. They are not lost. They are still here, and with Scott, wherever he is."

Kitty phased her hands free and glared at Piotr. "Promise me you'll never kill yourself."

"Katya, Jean did not do this for some selfish cause. She died to save others, and I know you would do the same. So would any one of the X-Men."

Kitty burst into tears. "I know, I know! I can't keep you safe! I don't want you to be some memory in a photo! I don't want to die!"

Piotr put his arms around her and held her as she cried. Eventually, she sniffled to a halt, and wiped her eyes and nose on the hem of her t-shirt.

"I think we should come out here, sometimes," she said, taking Piotr's hand. "I think they would have liked that. To be part of more memories, I mean." She touched the carved initials once more, lightly, and led Piotr away into the sunlight. He looked back, once, into the shade, but the letters and heart were already invisible. He shook his head, clearing it, and followed Kitty back to the house. They were alive, and there was much to be done.