xp_logs | Haroun and Alison

x-jetstream.livejournal.com posting in

Haroun's having a bad mobility day, Alison's having a bad coping day. They talk it out.

Haroun swore explosively at himself as he collapsed back into his desk chair. Today was NOT being a good mobility day. He'd walked to breakfast, then walked to the library, then walked back up to his room, but he had two major problems now. Problem Number One is that his back was screaming and he was having no luck at _all_ staying steady on his feet. Problem Number Two is that he had to go. Urgently. And this led back into why Problem Number One was really, really pissing him off. It was good that Alison was out with Miles, as he really didn't fancy letting her watch him crawl. He let himself drop to the floor, and then slowly started to pull his way to the bathroom. Not too far to go in the grand scheme of things, but it seemed like kilometers to him.

Having dropped off Miles with a very impatiently waiting Artie but moments ago, Alison walked inside the suite she shared with Haroun, dropping her purse on the nearby purse hook (another purchase in the "keep Alison from being a slob" quest) and paused to stretch out her arms, sighing a bit. It had been an… interesting outing, to say the least. Shrugging that off as an off day for Miles, or at least trying to, she shed her jacket, placing that on a hook by the door as well and wandered in deeper, looking about curiously. "Haroun?"

Haroun had made it to the bathroom - luckily for him - and taken care of business without embarrassing himself unduly. But his back was still telling him that the whole walking around thing was Not Happening. "In here!" he said, knowing that her keen ears would let her know where he was. He was perfectly decent, just sitting on top of the toilet and trying not to glower.

The echo was a dead giveaway and Alison headed in that direction, the tone to Haroun's voice a dead giveaway as to how his morning had been. She leaned on the wall by the doorway and called out over her shoulder in a low voice, trying not to let her own frazzled morning show through. "How you doing?"

"Having a really shitty mobility day. Pun not intended. I crawled in here, but since you're here, would you mind terribly helping me back into my chair in the living room?" he asked, hating himself for doing it but asking anyway. It was _Alison_, it wasn't like this would be the first time - or the last - that he'd need her help.

"Sure thing," she replied, stepping inside the bathroom to help him up. She braced herself the second he'd managed upright, ready to take as much of the weight as possible in case everything suddenly went sideways.

Haroun tried not to put any more weight than he had to onto Alison, but unfortunately his mobility day was truly terrible, and his back was screaming, so he wound up making her take most of the burden of helping him to his chair. His feet didn't want to lift, his knees didn't want to bend, and his hips didn't want to rotate. Getting to the chair was an exercise in torture, but they made it, and Haroun sank into it gratefully. "You've been working out." he said with pleasure. "I always did like a fit girl."

She shot him a wicked smile at that, stretching out one leg to hook a footrest and drag it closer before settling his feet slowly on it. "I do remember something about you ogling my back before you tried to suck up the entire pool in your lungs..." Not that she'd realized it at the time, but hindsight was indeed 20/20.

Haroun could have spent _hours_ just watching the play of the muscles in her legs. "I'm sorry?" he said, looking up at her eyes after he realized that she'd been -talking- while he was ogling. He dug into his short-term memory and fished out her words. "Yes, well, it's a very nice back." he said modestly.

Laughing quietly, not even showing a wince at the reminder that it wasn't as nice as back now as it had been before, Alison shook her head and moved to sit on the arm of the chair, within easy reach of being pulled into his lap should he feel like it. "Well, there's this whole thing about working out each and every day or so..."

See? You do it enough and it pays off!" he said with a laugh. He winced briefly as a muscle in his back spasmed. Yep. Definitely a bad day, mobility-wise. "Pass me the heat pad, please?" he asked her, nodding towards the larger sofa where the pad was resting.

Retrieving the heat pad took only a few seconds, Alison twisting it to active it, the pad warming in her hands almost instantly. She waited until he leaned forward, bracing him her forearm, then slid the heating pad into place against his back. "There you go..."

Haroun almost sobbed in relief. The heat felt delicious, going to work on knotted muscles and pissed-off nerve pathways. "Thank you." he said with a bit of a groan. "So - how's your day been going, now that we all know how crappy mine has been."

"Oh... ups and downs, so far," she answered evasively, reclaiming her earlier perch and scooting as close as she could while not falling into his lap, trying to be careful of his back. Draping an arm around his shoulders, she looked over towards the window, realizing that it was about time she told him at least about one of the things which had occured while he was in the infirmary...

"Horseshit." he snorted, seeing the expression on her face. "Something's bothering you. Spit it out, woman." he said, trying to relax himself into the heat. He could definitely tell she had
something on her mind, and he wanted to get it out of her before it could fester.

Alison smiled a bit at that, leaning forward to kiss the top of his head lightly - and then realized that even that was a way to stall for time. Which wasn't what she was supposed to be doing anymore, now that he was doing better.

"Something... happened. While you were hurt and all. It's about my father..."