Shiro & Marie-Ange, backdated to April 7th

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

Backdated like whoa because I forgot it was sitting on my hard drive for weeks. Before Shiro asks Scott to let him become a trainee, he talks to Marie-Ange about what it's like.


As interesting as the process of DNA replication and its requisite enzymes are, the noise coming from the suite common room was distracting Shiro. He tried to ignore it, focusing on the polymerization of Okazaki fragments instead. But it became just too much. Shutting his genetics textbook, Shiro hastily got up from his desk and opened the door to his room, looking out and glaring at the redheaded figure on the couch. "Urusai!" he growled angrily.

If he'd wanted her to be quiet, he could have -said-. Marie-Ange rolled her eyes, determined to ignore Shiro. If Doug was going to continue to talk about this Battlestar Galactica show, she should at least try to make sense of it. Not that the show made a bit of sense to her.

Oh great, Marie-Ange. For Doug's sake (and for the sake of having an intact common room), Shiro withheld the impulse to make things go boom. "Would you be so kind as to turn that down?" he asked, gritting his teeth.

It wasn't -that- loud, really. But she had a date to go on soon and a screaming fight with Shiro, as cathartic as it could be, would just take entirely too long. After a moment of examining the entirely-too-complex remote control, Marie-Ange managed to turn the noises down. Not without an irritated eye-roll though. There was only so far she was willing to go.

Shiro couldn't miss the eye-roll, but he took any victory he could get. "Thank you." Turning to head back into his room, his recent conversation with Haroun came to mind, specifically his suggestion to speak with the other X-Men trainees to discover their feelings about the team. He supposed he could ask Doug, but he knew as well as anyone that Doug wasn't cut out for actual battle. Marie-Ange, on the other hand, had been trained by Sif in Asgard, and her powers made her a suitable warrior.

Sighing silently, Shiro turned around again and looked at Marie-Ange. "Actually, I have a question for you." It was clear from his voice that it was an actual inquiry and not a request. Not that he'd ever request anything from her anyway.

Marie-Ange raised an eyebrow slowly. This was probably going to be sarcastic. Although, she noted, Shiro looked rather serious, and he wasn't -that- good of an actor.

"The X-Men," he began, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorpost. "What is it like training to join the team? What are your responsibilities and your duties? Do you have to wear those atrocious leather uniforms?"

That was not the question she had been expecting.

"Hard." She said simply. "It is a lot more busywork than I expected, a great deal of reading and studying, in addition to the self-defense training and practice with more aggressive use of my powers. The last was said in a slightly weary tone of voice, as if even the idea was tiring.

"As a rule, we do a great deal of the maintenance tasks. Paperwork, equipment maintenance, especially on the plane. I am told that the Blackbird requires a great deal of regular work. "Grunt work.", I believe is what Haroun called it." She paused, and shook her head, half-smiling. "And yes, we have uniforms. Dark grey, very plain."

Shiro nodded. Grunt work he could do. (He had helped Haroun fix the jet after he damaged it last summer, after all). Training and practice he could definitely do. But paperwork? "What sort of paperwork?" he asked, almost incredulously. "You fill out forms to restock the medlab and place orders for new uniforms?" Given how battered the X-Men came home in after missions, he imagined that they killed more cows every year than McDonalds.

"It is mostly research. Reading and filing mission reports, taking stock of supplies for the Blackbird and reporting that with Haroun. A great deal of research, especially reading our own training reports." Lord, did they ever read those. Over and over. "It is useful, sometimes to be able to read about things and then put them into practice in training sessions."

"I see. And when do you get to the actual training?" Shiro wouldn't argue the importance of research and paperwork, but he didn't want to sign up so he could read. He had enough of that in school.

"A few weeks after the vast piles of paperwork and reading assignments." Marie-Ange frowned, counting back days in her head. "Though, you are a bit more equipped for training than I am. I am starting, in some ways, at the beginning, and you already know how to fight. It may be faster for you."

Shiro raised an eyebrow. A bit more equipped for training than she is? Talk about an understatement. That was like saying that Lorna was a bit more equipped than he is to open a restaurant, or Doctor McCoy was a bit more equipped than he is to discover a cure for cancer. "I certainly hope so," he said instead. "And when they do begin training, what do they have you do?"

"I am not sure. I only just started working in the Danger Room a short bit ago, and not yet with the other trainees. I suppose it would be similar for you." With a small tired grin, Marie-Ange pushed up the sleeve of her shirt, showing a green-yellow bruise. "Maybe with -less- bruising for you, I think?"

Shiro offered a skeptical look. "Yes, I believe so." He was itching to get accepted as a trainee and sent for a round in the Danger Room, if anything, to one up the other trainees. He could just imagine the look on Scott's face when he'd successfully complete his first session. "And they do make the trainees train together?" Oh, that would be fun in the way that's not.

"Yes. Eventually." She hadn't quite gotten there yet, but it had started to come up in those ever-so-fun-and-educational discussions with Cyclops. "I am not sure if they are going to separate us from training with Mr. Marko, but we do the Danger Room review sessions with him, so I imagine not."

Blink blink. "Training with Marko? I . . . do not know how to appropriately respond to that. What is his codename? Giant-man?"

Marie-Ange's response was barely audible amidst the giggling. "Hydrant. I think it is Alison's fault, but she has not yet admitted it. Because he had a red jacket."

Shiro snorted, although it was one of amusement and not disgust. "~Isn't it always her fault?~" he asked himself quietly in Japanese. "Well, thank you for the information."

"I take it you are seriously considering training then?" That would be... interesting, Marie-Ange decided. Not necessarily bad, but definitely interesting. "I should perhaps, I think, warn Doug not to make trial by fire jokes then? He tends to react to training with horrible puns."

There was another amused snort, and Shiro shook his head. "As long as he is not trying to distract me with his puns, then he can make as many as he likes. But I reserve the right to blast him if they degenerate from bad but funny to just plain dumb."

"No, the few times I have seen Doug have to be." Marie-Ange frowned. "I feel quite silly making the distinction between Doug as my boyfriend, and Doug who has a silly codename. Before training, though, he is Doug. Terrible jokes and puns and making fun of our codenames. During, he is quite serious. No distractions."

Shiro nodded at that, considering his roommate. He and Doug were friendly, sure, and while they were by no means close, it wasn't much of a stretch to imagine Doug dropping his goofy self to be an X-Man. "I see. Well, thank you," he said, inclining his head briefly before turning to head back into his room.