Logs // Alison, Haroun // Moments...

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Backdated to the day of the Air Xavier mission, set afterwards on the same day. Alison returns from a mission, a symmetric reversal from when she was off duty and roles were reversed… Haroun deals with the situation far better than Alison did at the time.

Haroun sat up in his room, still in the wheelchair, idly doing reps with a hand-held barbell. He was still waiting on getting his access rights reset, but he was in no hurry to dive back into the thick of X-Men business. Right now, his needs were simpler. Work out, get his strength back, relearn to walk, relearn to fly, then - maybe - he could consider taking his old spot back.

But he had two things on his mind right now. Three, honestly. The first was that Alison was out somewhere - X-Men business, she'd told him with an impish grin. He was down in Medical when she assembled her team and headed out, so he didn't get to say goodbye. Secondly, for some reason some really obnoxious thrash was echoing in his head. It was the Song That Got Stuck In Your Head times a thousand. He could practically hear every note slam through his skull. And thirdly, he wanted to get up to twenty reps, each arm, before his arms turned into overcooked noodles.

The nice thing about weightlifting was that it took his mind off of worrying about Alison. He hated being out of the loop sometimes.

Opening the door a crack, Alison peeked inside, resisting the urge to carol out a greeting to announce her arrival. Doing that clearly had been the right idea - she was rewarded with the sight of a profile highlighted by the sunlight gleaming through the window, the slight huffs of breath barely noticeable yet still indicative of someone indulging in a light workout. As she thought, he was doing reps with one of the smaller barbells, arm moving methodically with each one.

Haroun looked up and saw her standing there, watching him. Something inside of him relaxed its fist around his guts, and he smiled in sheer relief. "Hey." he said, nothing her complete lack of bruising or any visible injury. "Have a good op?" he asked as he struggled to finish up his last set.

"Yep!" She sidled into the room, closing the door firmly behind her and made her way towards him, weaving lazily about the room, enjoying the play of sunlight on skin for as long as possible. "You're looking good." The purr was quite cheerful, really, Alison beaming at him as she neared the chair and knelt down to rest her elbows on the arm of it. "I hated having to wait behind when you went out, when I was off duty. Drove me stir crazy," she stated, matter of fact.

"Good." he said. "I find that I don't quite care for it much. I'd rather be out there, with you. With the team." he said. "But it looks like you came back without a scratch, which makes me quite happy." he said with a grin. "Presume you're going to want to go take a bath, soak out some stress or some bruises? I could run it for you..." he babbled.

She grinned up at him, and then reached over to press a fingertip to his cheek. The doorway was just wide enough for him to wheel through and he certainly looked entirely earnest about it. "Well now, that sounds like a delightful proposition." She nodded firmly at that, then reached over to steal the barbell he was still holding, raising an eyebrow a bit at the weight, though it was still in her range. She was willing to bet that by the next week, they no longer would be, at that.

Haroun grinned at her surprise at the weight. "I'm pushing, I know, but I'm finally starting to respond. I swear, it's harder now to get that edge I'm looking for." he said. "Takes longer to build muscle back on. And once I get the whole walking thing settled out, then I'm going on flexibility training - I don't want to get musclebound." he said. "Now, the lady wanted a bath, so the lady gets a bath. Had I known what time you were due home, I'd have it waiting for you." he said, wheeling himself into the bathroom to get the whole process started.

She beamed as he wheeled himself away, gratefully peeling off her clothes one bit at a time, flopping down on the bed dressed only in the barest of essentials as she listened to the water run. "It was

really simple, go in, leave. It was weird to be the team leader with Scott on the team," she added, wrinkling her nose a bit, "but fun at the same time. This new system we worked out to have more people available for missions by throwing in XOs and COs in the team pool really will work out nicely I think."

Haroun stiffened a bit, but tried his best not to show it. He added some bubbles to the bath - she normally loved bubble-baths. Testing the water with a finger, he called out to her. "Bath's ready!" he said, wheeling himself out of the way so she could get to the tub. "Just the way you like it - I think. I'm forgetting something."

"Mmm. Me?" She pushed herself up from the bed and wandered towards the bathroom, leaning down to kiss Haroun's forehead lightly before shedding the last of her undergarments. Slipping into the hot water slowly, she let out a long, unsteady sigh, eyes closing slight as she sank down into the water and the bubbles floating atop it.

Haroun theatrically smacked himself on the forehead. "I FORGOT THE BLONDE!" he said, and then laughed. "Actually, I just remembered. Stay there." he said, wheeling himself out into the suite to collect a few items. When he returned, he bore in his hands his incense burner and a small collection of his Moroccan incense. "A smell of home." he said, lighting the incense and inhaling deeply. Putting it on the counter, he turned himself to face the woman in the bath.

A drowsy murmur of approval greeted that, Alison's lips quirking slightly as the smell of the incense drifted (lightly) in the small room. "Thank you," she murmured with a small, sweet smile, head leaning on the side of the bathtub, turned slightly so that she could look at him properly.

Haroun leaned back as much as he could to watch Alison go through the motions of relaxing into the tub. "Kinda wish I could join you." he said softly. "It'll happen - someday. Just not today." he added. "I'm glad you came back safe." he said. "You're still one-up on the coming home mangled front."

A slow blink answered that, Alison considering his words - and then she flushed slightly, shaking her head. "Actually, I think I'm two to your one." She bit her lip, then gave him a tentative smile. "Promise me you won't try to beat my score?"

"That's what I said. You're one up on me. You've done it twice, I've done it once." he explained. "And I can't promise, you know that. Don't even ask me to." he said with a flash of his old fire before he simmered right back down. "You know what? Fuck it. I refuse to be a cripple." he said, and then using his arms pushed himself out of his wheelchair, scooting himself over to a controlled fall onto the edge of the tub. It hurt like a bitch, but it was worth it. "Got room for one more?" he asked with a grin.

Her eyes widened a touch at that though she made not a move to stop him - he'd been cleared to leave the infirmary and that meant he wasn't going to do anything permanent to himself on his own - they knew him well enough to keep him there just a bit longer to ensure that, really. And if nothing else, clearly she was a bit more tired than she'd anticipated and having someone there to keep herself from drowning wasn't a bad idea at all. "If you've been cleared for that what with the healing process..." She grinned at his expression and then leaned on her side of the bath, so that she was almost nose to nose with him. "Damn right I do."

~*~

Set early Monday morning. Adjustments to the new 'ware have to be made on all levels, it seems, and Harouns' wardrobe is in for a serious rehaul. Not that this bothers Alison too much, truth be told.

Haroun stared at his end of the cavernous closet and swore. This was the third pair of pants he'd tried on, and none of them fit worth a damn. They were all way too tight, constricting him in places where, now, it was Highly Uncomfy to be constricted. "Dammit!" he said, and then threw on a pair of Xavier Institute sweats. At least they still fit. Now he needed a shirt. And socks, and boots. Because today was going to be a Going Outside day. He'd just decided that he was sick and tired of being inside and/or underground all the time.

"Heeeey..." Leaning in the doorway, Alison eyed Haroun contemplatively as he scowled blazing death into the closet, a pile of discarded clothing strew about (neatly so, somehow, which she never thought would be managed yet there Haroun had done the impossible. "Oh, I see." She smiled a bit, watching him for a moment longer, simply enjoying the sight of him therein their room. "Clothes being all sorts of mean to you, huh?"

Haroun turned - wobbily - to look at Alison. "Yeah, this is not going well. Just about all my stuff doesn't fit right." he said with a scowl. "Too tight. Hell, my uniform doesn't even fit." he said. "Not that I'll be wearing that any time real soon..." he grumbled. "I have a problem. Only stuff that still fits is the baggy Institute stuff."

"Well." She stepped into the room, walking towards him slowly, still smiling enigmatically. "Most of it I bet we can take into the tailor's and get adjusted. That'll save on stuff, especially your favorite stuff, yeah?" Other than the clothing she'd 'borrowed' from him while he was in the medlab, which was now hers for all intents and purposes. Mostly. He had yet to try and pry them away from her. "And if you feel like going out today, we can go pick up a few new things for you until the rest gets fixed?"

Haroun shrugged. "Uniform I'll get re-measured for - no point in trying to correct the leather. Out of all of this ..." he said, trailing off as he sorted through the neatly-organized piles "... I think I want to save these." he said, holding up some hangers for her. On them were the outfit he wore on their dinner-and-dancing date, and a few of her more enthusiastically-approved-of silk button-downs. "Guess we're off to the shops then."

Cheerfully grabbing the proffered hangers and setting them aside to be sent out for repairs later - as well as mentally going over whatever else could be salvaged, Alison then somehow managed to stop grinning for all of a few seconds. "Shopping! Yeah, we can do that. And hey, it means I get to ogle you in all sorts of new stuff. I can really do that," she added, solemnly. And then grinned again.

Haroun rolled his eyes at her. "Letch." he said, but with great fondness. "And fair is fair, you know. Since we're going to be smoking your credit cards, may as well go all-out, no? Besides, I should get a LITTLE bit of enjoyment out of this." he said with a smirk. "Which reminds me - did the payment go out to my folks while I was out?" he asked worriedly.

"I have much goodness to ogle, I'll have you know," she informed him gravely, not at all shy about not even pretending to sneak in a good look at that very moment. She by-passed the talk about credit cards and the abuse thereof and instead fetched her purse, giving him a reassuring nod of the head once she was done. "Yep. I made sure everything went out, regular as clockwork. Oh, there's also a letter." She pulled it out of her purse and handed it to him gravely.

"A letter?" he said, trying not to dive for it. "I'll read this one later. Thank you for taking care of my business while I was out." he said with real emotion thickening his voice. "Means a lot to me." After a moment, he got himself under control. "Right. So - a day shopping it is, then." he said with as much of a grin as he could muster. "But you have to buy me dinner at the Verdant Dragon. Since, as you well know, they won't deliver here any more." he said with a laugh.

She watched him tuck the letter away with a care that couldn't possibly be concealed and just smiled in agreement. "The Verdant Dragon it is. After we get a bit of shopping done." It would be a nice way for him to get a break while they were out and the signs of fatigue were still damn easy to spot, so knowing when to call a break for food wouldn't be hard to do at all. "Shall we?" she grinned, hefting her purse and tilting her head towards the door.

Haroun nodded. "May need to take this nice and easy. Stamina's still not where it needs to be, and you really don't want to have to haul me back from the shops by yourself. Lasers won't help you much there, and I'd hate for you to break a nail or something." he said with a small laugh to let her know he was joking. Mostly.