Haroun and Alison - Delicate Injuries

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Set mid-morning on Tuesday. Seems that Monday night got a little overexuberant, and Alison is paying the price. Haroun has the decency to feel terrible about it, and is trying to make it up to her however he can.


I've incorporated an inside joke into this log. I am a Bad, Bad Person. ;)




Haroun looked at Alison, and then raised the level of the comforter tucked around her waist another quarter-inch. He had breakfast ready to go on the tray - fresh fruit, a solitary red rose, coffee, mint tea, freshly-squeezed orange juice, and a hot croissant with creamy butter. He would have to make it up to Lorna later in a big way - he was running late and the kitchen was probably still a mess. But right now, he didn't care. He leaned over and flicked the bedroom stereo on, filling the room with ethereally light music from one of Alison's favorite artists. "How do you feel this morning?" he asked, trying to conceal the hot stab of guilt that ripped through him when he asked the question.

Still blinking away the last remains of sleep, Alison stared at the tray and the layout upon it, eyes pausing on the red rose. The smell of the sweet mint tea was nothing short of heavenly and she reached for it carefully, taking a slow sip before focusing on Haroun. This was, without a doubt, a wonderful way to be woken up. "Thank you." A smile accompanied the thanks, still a hint of sleepiness to it and Alison shifted a bit in the bed before settling the cup back down. "I'm feeling fine," she added reassuringly, though she wasn't about to hop out of bed, truth be told. Reaching for the fruit, she plucked a grape and grinned as another subsequently made a break for it, rolling across the tray.

Haroun nodded. "Good. I was a little worried." he admitted, but tried his best to keep it off his face. "I made breakfast." he said unnecessarily, as the smells of the food and the tea were making him hungry. "So, please, eat." he added, gesturing towards the tray. A little wasn't quite the right description from the hints of worry that kept flashing though, or so Alison thought. And he was hovering. "Only if you sit down to join me," she said calmly, nudging the tray a bit carefully though she elected not to move herself. There was still room for him to sit down on the bed, be it by simply removing one of the pillows near the edge or by sitting down near her thighs, facing her. "This kind of breakfast gets shared. It's lovely."

Haroun smiled pleasantly and grabbed a section of croissant from her tray, nibbling on it delicately. "I'm not terribly hungry. I ate while I was fixing this for you." He prayed, briefly, that his rumbling stomach would not give lie to his words, and for the moment it behaved. "And I have more tea, so I think I'll pour myself a cup." he said, proceeding to do Just That.

She waited patiently until he'd returned, which wasn't that long at all, causing Alison to wonder if there was a rubber band between them she'd missed seeing at one point. Still, she was doing justice to another section of croissant as he sat down carefully on the bed, only to be handed a slice of orange in greeting. "Haroun?" The hand shifted to pat his cheek once he'd taken the orange. "I'll be fine. It's nothing serious, really." He had no idea how much his intensity could give him away sometimes, she decided.

Haroun was still quite blind on that score. "If it's all the same to you, I still feel hideously guilty." he said softly, and then forced himself to smile at her. "Anything else I can do for you? I've got some team stuff we can review, once you're finished with breakfast."

The team stuff would wait just a little bit longer. The tea was claimed again, Alison cradling the colourful cup in her hands. "You're already pampering me something fierce," she grinned just a bit, before taking a swallow of the tea. She pondered getting up versus how he might flail in protest if she tried. Though the mental image was amusing, she was starting to get worried herself. About him. "Haroun, you don't exactly have the same frame of reference," she paused, searching for the right words and not finding much that suited what she wanted to say – then again, not many people had to say this. "We're both kinda making this up as we go along," she settled for that instead, feeling it only fair to keep the onus of it on the both of them rather than just Haroun.

Haroun sighed and sunk into his chair a little deeper. "Maybe." He conceded. "But let's face it - if I'm not listening to feedback, if I'm getting so carried away with stuff I can't even really feel anyway then I have a problem, and you have a problem." he said flatly. "As I just demonstrated. Which reminds me - did you get an answer from your doctor about how bad the damage is?"

"There is also the fact that I was getting carried away with things too, mmm?" The slice of honey melon was dispatched quickly as she pondered her next words. "You know. Considering the odds and all? I'd say we're swinging a pretty darn good batting average here. And," she grinned crookedly, "it's not like we're not sorting things out just fine. Just hit a speed bump on the way, is all." Their first time hadn't been entirely smooth sailing either, though he'd been so very scared to do something wrong back then... "Doctor said I'd be fine too. Just day off and nothing strenuous." And said day had been cleared upon their return the previous night, at that. "She said it wasn't anything horribly unusual..." The last was added tentatively, without any mention of the light teasing that had followed.


Haroun blinked at that, stunned by the notion. "Not anything horribly unusual?" he said in a strangled tone. "I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I don't want to know." he repeated in a mantra to calm himself. "And you can have as many days off as you think you need to recover fully." he said firmly.

"Just one is fine." She bit her lip and reached out, tugging him a bit closer. "You did not maim me permanently, already. And yes, even people, without 'ware, who have been in a relationship for a while have the occasional mishap at times. It happens." Pausing, Alison wrinkled her nose. "They just don't talk about it, s'all."

Haroun growled at that. "Well, I think I'm justified in feeling like a total shit, OK? I mean, you don't have to do any of that other than that apparently by some miracle of God I can make you feel good. Which is great, because I like that a lot. But when I take something like that, a _gift_ freely given, and then, pardon the phrase, fuck it all up like that? Not good. And that's leaving aside the very _real_ possibility that another mishap like that could cripple you for life or _worse_."

This time she nudged the tray further away, belatedly noticing she'd actually dented the food on it a fair bit somehow during the conversation. "Come here," was the gentle murmur, Alison reaching out so that Haroun would move closer. "This really is getting to you," she acknowledged, leaving it at that. "There's no permanent damage at all and it was because I moved wrong when you - ahem... yes." She was actually blushing, just a touch. "And I'm ok. Really, and - it was bound to happen sooner or later. You don't have the comparison frame anymore and you're always so careful." She paused, lips quirking. "Even when, er, enthusiastic and all." Which she clearly didn't mind in the least. "Promise me you won't feel horrible too long? Not asking to stop right this moment, but... soon?"

Haroun sighed. "I know I'm probably overreacting and that it was just an accident. But, dammit, I kept running scenarios through my head, and the nicest ones involved you just bleeding out from internal injuries." he said worriedly. "I did not sleep well at all last night."

Catching herself staring at him, Alison finally shook her head a bit, before moving towards him just enough to kiss him lightly on the corner of the mouth. "I'm fine. I'll be fine - and that won't happen. You're not overreacting," she added judiciously. "But it's okay. And I thought I was the one supposed to run scenarios in my head and worry here, mm?" The teasing was careful though, and her eyes stayed focused on him, slightly somber. "I feel safe with you. It'll be fine. And." Tapping his chin lightly and tilting her head to the side, she pointed at the remaining fruit on the tray. "Have a slice of apple. And until things settle down, why don't we talk about something else to distract you? " The temptation to ask him to read to her in Arabic was overwhelming, but she managed to push it down for now.

"I am, but it's sweet of you to deny it. No, I'll be fine. Especially since now I know you'll be OK. I was ... a little worried." He hazarded a wan smile, and then picked up the aforementioned slice of apple and nibbled on it. "Still does bother me, but it's not something I can't live with." he said. "So." he said, trying to change the subject. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

He'd cleared his schedule for the day as well, she suspected, and she knew he'd been a lot more than just worried at this point. And asking him to not worry would be silly and insulting at this point. "Tell me how the maintenance on the bird went and when I'm up for my next flight?" She would have to be the one to take the initiative the next time, she thought, giving him a smile in return.

"The 'Bird - well, I was originally going to take a look at that left aileron - I keep getting intermittent complaints in the log that it's sticking, but I can't reproduce the error. Stupid Heisenbugs." he said with the frustration that any engineer would feel. "But something a little more important came up. As for your next flight - that's Scott's call, not mine. Since you passed basic maneuvers, we should really do a night flight, and then a foul-weather one. Then we can move on to VTOL." he theorized.

She knew what the something more important was, and that random comment still earned him a smile. "I'm looking forward to the night flight. Not so much the foul-weather one, but at least that'll be Ororo and under controlled conditions. Which is actually scarier than regular foul-weather, considering the sort of storms she can kick up." She still didn't even want to think about a VTOL from the hangar. Those were scary. Very. Denting a wing would be bad.

Haroun shrugged. "They're both necessary to get your full wings." he said casually. "But you're not flying anywhere, not until you get a clean bill of health." he added quite sternly.

The last earned him half-sheepish, half meant to be reassuring smile. The promise of earning her wings had her shaking her head though, looking a touch bemused. "I still can't believe I'm doing this sometimes. I mean... a stealth jet. Modified. Heavily," Alison added hastily, before he could say it himself. "It's just so... out there, sometimes. Just sometimes."

"You think that's out there, try dating you." he said mostly under his breath. "Makes flying planes look easy." He then smiled at Alison and pitched his voice more towards normal tones. "Here, let me take care of this..." he said, collecting the debris of breakfast and disposing of what needed to be disposed of, refrigerating what needed refrigerating, and stacking up the rest to be dealt with later.

Trying to keep someone who absorbed sound from hearing something said nearby was an exercise in futility - and Haroun knew she would hear him, after having lived with her long enough by now to figure out that particular aspect of her power. Alison shifted in the bed a touch carefully, and waited until he was done and had returned to sit by her, the hovering still there if not as acute as it had been before. If anyone ever heard of this and decided to mock, she would kill them, she decided serenely. And then paled a bit, swallowing dryly as she was reminded of something else.

Haroun caught the change in color, but decided that right about now he didn't have much right to inquire about much of anything she may or may not be thinking. So instead he took out the bottle of painkiller and shook out two of them. "Here." he said, handing her the pills.

She looked up at him, wishing in that instant she could tell him everything. Would probably have done just that, were it not for the fact that the words locked down suddenly before she ever even figured them out. "Okay," she simply answered, taking the pills meekly and then the tea he handed her. The nausea pills were in the bathroom in her cabinet - unnecessary, for this time. So far. "Tell me more about my next flight?" she asked, instead. Both because it was a safe topic and because Haroun could lose himself in talk about the Blackbird.

Haroun smiled at Alison. "That would be cheating. All I can do is tell you that it will be a nighttime solo flight, roughly similar to your daytime flight. This time, we're going to make you fill out a flight plan and everything. Double-check it for correctness, please. It would be embarrassing to get this far only to get grounded for improperly filed flight plans." he said with a teasing wink. "And speaking of flight plans, did you know Forge is trying to get us flyers to register with the FAA? Not sure what I think about that - for one, I'm not an American, and for two, I don't want the FAA knowing anything about me or my power. It's just safer that way." he said firmly. "Sort of like if DARPA insisted on regularing you as a walking unlicensed particle accelerator - admittedly, in your case they're photons, but still."

Blink. That only meant she'd go over it ten times now. Gah. Taking a slow breath, she mentally made herself promise to not overdo it (too much) and then focused on the topic at hand fully with relief. "I'll be careful with the flightplace," she said obediently. This was working for Haroun, she thought, and seeing him start to relax slowly was helping her in immeasurable ways. "I hadn't heard about that, no. I guess it'd depend on how he's going about it. Has shades of the Registration Act there, and it's easy for things like that to sneak up on people again. Could be something good in terms of integrating mutants in mainstream society as matter of fact rather than exception, though, too."

"I'm still skeptical." he said with a shrug. "Too much risk, not enough reward." he added. "Anyway..." he said, snagging an errant piece of fruit off the "save this for later" pile and popping it into his mouth "... it's really not all that important right now. Pie-in-the-sky stuff, pun intended. What's really important is that we get you healthy and at 100 per cent." he said firmly. "And so, to facilitate that - I think that it is shower time. Want some help up, considering that walking has _got_ to be agony for you right about now?"

"It would need to be followed scrupulously from start to finish. And then still after that..." Shaking her head a bit, Alison let it go at that, eyeing Haroun intently for a moment instead. She didn't mind being fussed over, had no worries about being though of as weak or unable to take care of herself. She was, however, worried that he was turning this into self-flagellation. "It's not agony, but it is uncomfortable," she admitted, shifting enough to show that motion was indeed possible and she certainly wasn't crippled. "Help would be good." And then, because it was a way to give him something to do without any condemnation... "Unless you were planning to maybe carry me there?" She added a touch of the puppy dog eyes, keeping the question light and easy.

Haroun didn't even bat an eyelash. "No problem." he said, moving to stand next to her on the bed and scooping her out of it as gently as he possibly could. "Shouldn't be too bad, if we're just going to the bath. Or a shower, if you think you can stand upright long enough to take care of that." he added gently.

"Shower. I can stand, I'm just being lazy with the being carried," she replied with perfect aplomb, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "That and I like being carried by you." Which meant she was going to be walking back to bed after the shower, she decided. Or else he'd likely be carrying her everywhere all day, without even thinking about it twice. The tone of the day would be about re-enforcing the message to Haroun that she was not in excruciating pain, and then making sure he didn't overdo it. Somehow.

Haroun effortlessly carried her into the bathroom, and then set her delicately down on the toilet while he prepped the shower for her. "Be just a moment." he said, as he waited for the water to reach the correct temperature. "I think you've lost some weight." he said reassuringly as the water finally started to heat up correctly. "I could tell."

"I lost weight?" Alison blinked a touch bemusedly. Sure, she'd been doing more training lately with the upped every day stick fighting sessions for one, but losing weight? Looking down at herself, she made a small, bemused sound. "Really? I didn't need to lose weight." Absently she started to peel off her camisole, ending in a light jab at her side. "Are you sure you just haven't been working out more than usual? I don't think I lost weight…"

"I don't know. Felt like you did, but hey, when you've got these _massive_ _guns_ like I do..." he said, making sure to flex in entertaining ways at each word. "Maybe my perspective is a little skewed."

The posing drew a half-appreciative, half-disbelieving stare, soon followed by a towel aimed straight at Haroun's head. It was caught, obviously, though Alison followed that by throwing another towel at him - after taking off her bra, of course. "I can't believe you did that," she snickered, shaking her head while pushing herself up slowly.

"Hey, when you get kicked out of school for carrying guns like these, you have to learn to keep 'em holstered." he laughed. And while he knew he wasn't supposed to, he looked at Alison in sheer appreciation. "Shower's ready." he said, moving to give her better access. "I'll be right here to dry you off when you come out."

The look earned him a smile as she carefully shed the rest of her clothes and then stepped into the shower slowly, sighing in appreciate as the warm water cascaded over her. "Tell me what you have planned for your day while I'm in here?" The sound of his voice as he spoke was a pleasant counterpoint to the slight echo of the falling water drops and reaching for the soap, Alison started to plot out ways to make sure he stopped feeling so guilty.