Scott Summers has exactly seven pictures on his desk.
Four have proper, sturdy frames, aimed to make them last, aimed to protect the snapshots sitting inside them. Two have no frames at all, instead glued or taped to the set of drawers on top of the old desk. The last had a sloppily-but-lovingly crafted cover of popsicle sticks and Elmer’s glue. Each had its own story to tell.
Seven different photos of different times in a life of an ordinary superhero.
1. September Ninth, 1964
The picture had frayed edges, blurring one of Hank’s arms and half of Bobby’s leg. It was taken by a bemused Moira MacTaggert, the day the five original X-men had returned from their first summer vacation. Warren was beaming, arms squeezed around Jean and Bobby, the younger boy waving a peace sign. Hank was next to him, nose in a book and half smiling at whatever Bobby had joked.
On Jean’s left side was Scott himself, hair halfway grown in from the last time Bobby had gone at it with a pair of safety scissors, and tucked behind his ears. His favorite old sweatshirt- originally Warren’s, then Jean’s, and finally given to him after he didn’t give it back for a month- was covering his arms, but he wore a pair of swim trunks under them. They had gone to the beach five blocks from the old mansion that morning, and Bobby’s hair was still damp in the picture.
This one he kept with him because they were all halfway-grown. They still had their ideals. Warren still hoped to one day be a pilot. Bobby cooked cakes in the kitchen when he thought no one was home. Jean still played soccer in the backyard, and Scott still believed that his teacher was a good man.
They were too young to know the world for what it truly was.
2. Bobby Drake’s Eighteenth Birthday, December 1967
Bobby’s face still had that baby fat he took so long to grow out of, his arms wrapped around a fondly exasperated Hank. The younger boy had a paper hat on his head, curls poking out of it, and a smile brightening his face.
(Hank had given him a copy of The Outsiders, which was at the top of Bobby’s list. Scott hadn’t seen him smile so wide since before that gang of flatscans beat on him on the way home from the arcade.)
3. Scott and Jean’s Wedding, March 1994
His arms were wrapped around Jean’s hips as they danced, just the two of them, Jean’s freckles glowing bright and her eyes dancing. He was smiling, too, the stoic leader in his happy place for once. The table behind them is full of the X-men, Warren’s wings covered in pastel dye and Bobby hollering at the two of them. Hank, Lorna, Sean, Ororo, Alex (barely seventeen- he was best man, and so proud to be up there with his big brother marrying the woman of his dreams), and Logan sit immersed in one of Kurt’s tales, spun so expertly off his silver tongue that even Kitty, fifteen years old and a whirlwind of excitement, had stopped to listen.
He still remembers the song that played that night, exactly how the cake felt when Jean slapped half of it onto his face, how breathtaking Jean looked when she lifted his visor after exchanging their vows.
The world was perfect, if only for one night.
4. The Mutant Registration Riots, 1984
Kitty had made a protest jacket from Logan’s old denim, scrawling slogans across the back in old sharpie pen. She wore it in the snapshot, Scott’s arm around her shoulders, both unsmiling. Kitty had her hand over Scott’s arm, and he remembered her squeezing it like it was a lifeline- and it was, for her, barely thirteen and already at her first riot. He keeps that picture, he told Kitty once, to remember how brave the young are when they’re scared.
5. Mutant High’s Reopening, 1997
Jubilee was piggybacking on Everett, a bit of Angelo’s fingers covering the camera as he took the shot. Monet and Jono sat back to back next to the other teenagers, reading (Monet, the most recent People magazine and Jono, Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil. They stood in front of the brand new school, already graffitied with student’s names in the corner of the front wall. The new hope for humanity had risen again.
6. Opening Day, 2010
Hope was the one who gave him this snapshot, wrapped in a frame she had built with the youngest class. It was the entire group of X-Children, on their first day back, grinning and making faces at the camera. Jean and Ororo stood with them, soft smiles on both their faces, watching the newest children of the atom find their way.
7. Post Top Surgery, 2013
Warren had gotten him the best doctor in New York, he swore on it, and took a picture the first time Scott managed to sit up. His chest was bandaged, his sleep goggles still on his face, but Jean sat next to him on the hospital bed and he smiled like a child on Christmas at the camera. The kids had crowded the room only minutes after, all incredibly excited for their teacher.
(Benji had taken his old binder, and swore to wear it with pride, writing his name over the faintly scrawled S. Summers in the corner of the fabric.
Quentin had yelled “Trans mutie revolution!” and bounced on the cot, making Scott laugh until his chest- his flat chest, holy shit- ached.)
The pictures stayed on the desk for years after he retired in order to help the mutant underground with getting kids to JGS, joined eventually by others- Kitty and Ilyana’s wedding pictures, Logan’s kids, Ororo’s parents, the records of the one time the X-Teachers had recreated the f.r.i.e.n.d.s photoshoot.
They stayed remembered, those times when the X-men weren’t only for being the scapegoats of the world.