resolution
As the last 60 seconds of the year slip away, Jean feels a tap on her shoulder. Turning, she sees Scott standing there.
“Hey.” She smiles, reaching up to touch his cheek, just below the ruby quartz shades that hid his eyes. “You ready to count down?” He nods, gripping her hand tightly as he tugs her gently away from everyone else. “Scott, what is it?”
He’s doing an unusually good job shielding his thoughts from her tonight, and she can’t fathom why. “Scott?” she repeats, trying not to panic. “What’s going on?”
He pulls her outside to the one balcony that wasn’t filled with partying mutants and kisses her gently. She closes her eyes and lets the kiss happen happily. As she does, his shielding begins to disappear, revealing his memories of them, the emotions swirling around her, the struggles, the loss, but most importantly, the emotion that dominates every memory, the love.
As he pulls away, she opens her eyes and sees him kneeling in front of her, holding up a little black velvet box with a ring glittering inside it, a ruby set in rose gold and surrounded by little diamonds.
He doesn’t need to say a single word, Jean’s entire soul, her mind, her voice, sing out the same word.
“Yes.”
She pulls him up so that he can slip the ring on her finger and pull her close as the shouted countdown rings through the whole house.
Five! Four! Three! Two! One!
She’s the one to initiate the kiss this time as fireworks explode across the sky. A few of them might even be hers, though they have nothing to do with the Phoenix for once, and everything to do with her partner, her teammate, her fiancé.
Her Scott.
