A/N: Spawned from watching X-Men last night and realizing that Scott had to get those piloting skills from somewhere. :0) I don't own X-Men…credit goes to Stan Lee. R&R.

-Lil' Fish

Defying Gravity

He'd always loved that feeling… X-MEN. SCOTT-CENTRIC.

A complacent smile crosses the young man's face as he turns the ignition on. The monotonous hum of the plane's engine is almost soothing. He even hears it in his sleep, sometimes. Being a pilot might not have been his first career choice, but it fits him. It's in his blood, after all. Scott Summers can't quite put his finger on what he enjoys so much about flying. Maybe it's the fact that all the problems, all the hang-ups in life are left on the ground for a while. Perhaps it's that feeling he gets when straddling the border of Heaven and Earth. He's never entirely sure. But whatever that magic is, he remembers the exact moment he felt it for the first time…

The six-year-old boy stared intently out the window as the airplane streaked across the sky. He and his father, mother, and brother were flying from Daddy's base in Alaska back East to visit family.

"See all the little dots down there?" Mommy asked. "Those are all really tall buildings."

"They look like ants," he noted. But after a while, looking down grew boring and the child became restless. He turned to the pilot, his father.

"Daddy…are we there yet?" The man smiled and shook his head.

"Not yet, kiddo---we'll be there soon, though." Scott frowned. He didn't want to wait anymore; he wanted to see Grandma and Grandpa now. Seeing the disappointment on his son's face, the father got an idea. "Hey, in the meantime, wanna help me fly the plane?" The boy's crystalline blue eyes sparked with delight.

"Yeah!" Mommy, however, was quick to voice her disapproval.

"I don't know about this, Chris…he's just a child. And what if something goes wrong?" The pilot gave his wife a reassuring smile.

"Relax, Kathy. I'm a Major in the Air Force, for God's sake! And anyway, I'll bet Scotty's a much better pilot than his old man, ain't that right, Sport?" he added, winking at his eldest son. Nestled securely in his father's lap, Scott took the controls, allowing the bigger hands to gently guide his own. "Atta boy!" came the proud declaration. "Scott Summers---the world's youngest jet fighter pilot!" It made the boy excited that although he hadn't yet learned to tie his shoes, he'd actually flown a real Air Force plane. But a sudden cry interrupted his revelry.

"Me fly plane too!" Three-year-old Alex wasn't about to be denied his turn. Even after his turn had ended, Scott knew that something had happened. Somewhere deep within him, a sort of seed had been planted---a love for the sky---and even at the six, he was sure that feeling would stay with him for a long time to come…

The memory fades as quickly as it comes, and Scott wonders why in the world Xavier trusts a twenty-something year old mutant to take on such a task as to fly a plane---especially when this mutant sees the world only in shades of red. But then, he knows. It's a part of him, of who he is---and it's something he loves.