Smile Back: Part Three
by Minisinoo
I SHALL CHEER FOR YOU
Storm:
The box came three days after we got home from Japan. Peter passes out mail, but the only ones who ever get any besides the professor, are himself, Jean, and Bobby. This day, however, there is a small box wrapped in grocery-bag brown and taped within an inch of its life, addressed to Scott Summers. Amazed and slightly suspicious, he takes it, but his expression alters as soon as he sees the postmark. "It's from Montana," he says, grinning. "Dani Girl." It's the first time I've seen him really smile since we returned from Japan. Curious, I edge closer. We're in the kitchen, Hank and I, Scott and Peter, and all of us watch Scott try to open the box.
Finally, he gives up on tearing through all the tape and raises a hand to his visor, cutting a small line along one edge of the paper. It startles us . . . partly for his precision -- though by now, we ought to know just how good he is with the eye beams -- but mostly for his casual use of such a deadly power. Even after months of living here, I'm not used to that.
He suddenly seems to notice that he's the focus of all our attention. "What are you three stooges looking at? Don't you have anything better to do than watch me open my mail?"
"Nope," Henry replies with a grin from where he's crouching on one of the bar stools.
Scott flips him off but sits down, pulling out the little white box that had been inside the paper, and opening the lid. There's a brief note, lying on top. Four words that I can read now, even at a distance. "Happy birthday. Love, Dani."
"It's your birthday?" Peter asks, shocked, even as we hear footsteps behind us and all glance around. Wolverine enters the kitchen to head for the fridge, and the level of tension in the room kicks up a notch. We're never entirely comfortable around Logan.
"Two days ago," Scott answers Peter now.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"Because I didn't want you to know?" Scott asks, dryly.
"So you turned, what, nineteen?"
Scott nods as he raises white cotton fuzz to reveal the box's contents -- a silver bracelet, Indian-made. Lifting it out, he looks it over. It seems like a strange gift. I've never seen Cyclops wear jewelry of any kind. At most, he wears a watch. This bracelet isn't heavy or gaudy, but still -- it's a bracelet. There's a flat spot along the top and Scott turns it to see what's there. We all lean in to see, too. Resting sideways, wings out, is a little stylized bird done in silver on a square, turquoise background. Abruptly, he laughs. "A Thunderbird."
"And this is funny . . . why, exactly?" Henry asks, eyebrows up.
"Because when the Thunderbirds open their eyes, lightning shoots out."
It's not said by any of us. We look around, towards the fridge. Wolverine is leaning back against the door, sipping juice. "How'd you know that?" Scott asks, but with curiosity, not animosity.
Wolverine shrugs. "I know a lot of things." He takes the juice with him when he leaves.
No one says anything for a few minutes, then Scott admits, "He's right. It's was Dani's little joke. She kept telling me I had the wrong code-name."
"There's something on the back of the note," Henry says, gesturing. Scott turns it over and reads, but doesn't share it with us. Instead, he puts on the bracelet.
Later, I ask Hank if he'd been able to read the note, and what had it said? Hesitating, he tells me, "I couldn't see it all, but the part I did see said the bracelet is special 'medicine' -- her word. She bought it for him because she saw it in a vision. As long as he's wearing it, bullets can't touch him in battle -- like Crazy Horse." He shrugged. "Hoodoo, if you ask me."
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