Scott, Alex, and Lydia, early Tuesday morning

[om_panax]

The Great Alaskan Road Trip begins. The Summers boys are awkward. Lydia attempts to navigate their issues as best she can.

Once they were finally far from civilization, Scott had been able to put the car on cruise control and take his foot off the gas. Not that that meant they were going slow, or anything remotely like it, or that he wasn't likely to get a cramp because of how tightly wound he was. It just meant those things couldn't be attributed to holding the accelerator down.

A glance in the rearview mirror told him that Alex was contenting himself with staring into the nothingness outside.

Scott wasn't entirely sure it had occurred to any of them just how long four days was in a Jetta.

Well, three hours down, eighty-one more to go.

Lydia looked out her own window, humming along with the playlist she'd started up when they left. "So, are we doing actual sight-seeing at the stops in between, or just passing out?" She glanced back at Alex, there.

"Passing out, probably," said Alex, his chin resting on his palm and his elbow firmly squished into the armrest. "I don't know about you two, but I'm not nearly rich enough to actually enjoy a cross-country trip. If I have a couple of nickels to rub together by the time we get back, my bank account will thank me. And my cat, who I still have to take care of."

"What're you doing with her while you're gone, anyway?" Scott asked, glancing back again. He smirked just a tad, for Lydia's benefit, "assuming you didn't stow her away in here."

"She's being looked after," Alex replied, possibly just a touch pugnaciously. "You don't like her, anyway. What do you care?"

Scott shrugged as he merged into the left lane. "I don't dislike her. Besides, I mean...you do, which is what matters." He looked over at Lydia, "My own brother thinks I hate kittens."

Lydia made a melodramatically sympathetic face. "Kitten-hater."

"More like kitten-indifference ... uh, -er," Alex said. It was important to be fair, after all. "And she's more a cat now than a kitten. Still got a terrible attitude, though."

Scot considered saying that attitude reflected leadership, but given the mood Alex seemed to be in it looked like the better part of valor to just shut the hell up. His muscles tensed just that much more - barely out on the road, and already he was fucking shit up. This was going to go spectacularly. "Got it."

As usual, Lydia ignored the Summers Awkward. She assumed that by the time this little journey was done, she'd be doing it in her sleep. If she wasn't already. "Why didn't you ever name the cat, Alex?"

The smaller, blonder brother shrugged, and went back to staring out the window. "Seemed kind of pointless, you know? It's not like cats come when you call them. And I couldn't really think of anything that felt right. Maybe Attila or Demogorgon or something."

"Maybe save those ones for kids," Scott agreed, deadpan.

Lydia made a faux-appalled face at Scott. "Please, don't.

"I don't know, sounds about right, if she really does have the attitude you're saying she does. I've seen her in the corner when I go out riding, but she steers clear. She's bigger than my dog, now."

The mention of children caused Alex's face to screw up in a mixture of panic and knee-jerk aversion, but Lydia steered them back to the relatively safer topic of (semi-)domesticated felines. "She's only sort of friendly when you bring her food. Which might be why she's gotten so big; I'm pretty sure some other kids have been sneaking her stuff. And she's brought me a couple of mice. And a sparrow, once."

Scott smirked, "To be fair, Alex, Lydia's dog is actually some sort of gerbil. So she's not calling your cat fat."

"Prada is not a gerbil," Lydia protested, wrinkling up her nose. "And that's sweet, that your cat things you're incapable of hunting for yourself, Alex. She's taking good care of you."

"I dunno," said Alex skeptically. "I'da thought after my reaction the first time she brought me a bloody, half-mangled rodent corpse, she woulda realized I'm not onboard with the whole hunting thing. Personally, I think she does it to be a jerk." He turned away from the window to look at the back of Lydia's head. "Your gerbil-dog is named Prada? I think Cat is probably better off."

"She is a gerbil. I've seen pictures," Scott said, nodding in agreement with Alex's observation.

"She is not," Lydia insisted, eyes narrowed. "She is adorable, and not at all rodent-like.

"Alex, that's probably the cat's point. Here, ridiculous defenseless human, this is how it's done. But without the actual emotions and more of the murdering."

"Yeah, I guess I can envision the contempt pretty well. Not so much the wanting to help me out. But my allergies probably bias my opinion; I tend to think she's trying to kill me even when she's napping."

Only his brother would get a pet he was allergic to. Of course. "Maybe she's an evil genius."

"You Summers boys do seem to go in for that," Lydia said--yes, meaning herself--with a smirk. "Why do you have a pet you're allergic to, again?"

"Because she didn't have anybody else," Alex shrugged, and turned his face back to the window. "I couldn't have just left her where I found her."

Because Alex's white knight streak was so powerful that it was basically self-destructive, was basically what it boiled down to. Scott chose not to say that, though. Instead, he gave Lydia and meaningful look.

Lydia just smiled. "You're sweet." A slight pause, then suddenly, "Do you have a girlfriend? Or boyfriend?"

Starting so hard that his chin slipped out of his palm (and almost collided with the door panel), Alex stared at Lydia's back wearing an expression that could have been called horror without much exaggeration. "I ... what? No! I mean, I guess I was interested in this one girl, once," he rambled. "But that kind of fell through. And now I'm just trying to get my shit together, you know? Not a lot of time for, uh, that kind of ... you know, thing."

It was almost impossible not to smirk - not at the poor kid's response, of course, Scott was pretty sure he'd been dejected about it - but at how he'd jumped. Still, somehow he managed, clenching his jaw shut hard. He gave Lydia another look, too, though this time it was more in warning not to break the guy than in amusement.

She made an innocent face, batted eyelashes and all, at Scott. "Too bad about the girl falling through. I'm just surprised no one's snapped you up, is all. We'll have to keep an eye on you to make sure when someone does, she's a good one."

Alex blinked. "I don't really think it's gonna come up any time soon," he told her. "It's a pretty small school, and the ration of boys to girls doesn't do much for my chances. I just don't see it happening. Maybe in college, or something." His shoulders rose and fell. "Anyway, I don't need romance. I've got a cat."

"If you're under the impression those are the same things, maybe it's time for a call to animal control," Scott offered helpfully.

Lydia pursed her lips and rolled her eyes--and yet there was an odd fondness in the expression. "You know what he meant.

"College is a few years off. You mean to tell me you seriously don't think you'll get a date before then?"

"Dunno," he said, shrugging. "I guess it's just not my top priority right now? Maybe that'll change. But girls aren't exactly beating down my door right now, and I just don't ... y'know. It's been a rough couple of months. Makes it hard to put much thought into that kind of thing."

Scott considered pointing out that women, or anyone if that was Alex's preference, could sneak up on you. It wasn't as though he'd come to Xavier's looking for dates. He'd certainly never intended to fall for Lydia. It just...had happened.

Something kept him from sharing, though. Instead, he just offered, "Not like there's a rush or anything." A smirk. "Stop pimping him out, Red."

"I'm just saying, there are plenty of cute girls," Lydia said with a little shrug and a smile pulling at her lips. "But it shouldn't be a priority, no. Their loss."

"That's prob'bly a matter of opinion," Alex noted. "But thanks, anyway.

"So," he went on, eager to change the subject, but not wanting to be too obvious about it, "are we there yet?" Smooth.

"What gave it away?" Scott asked dryly.

"Oh god," Lydia said with a little, silent laugh. Here we go...

Comments

[om_magik]

"Anyway, I don't need romance. I've got a cat."

"If you're under the impression those are the same things, maybe it's time for a call to animal control,"

24 hours since I first read this, and this is Still making me giggle.

Summers brothers <3 (and Lydia, too!)