xp_logs | Nathan and Alison, Thursday morning

Alison is pacing outside Nathan's office. Nathan orders her inside and gets her to spill, and finds out that it's a certain question she'd like to ask Haroun that's contributing to her twitchiness.

Alison bit her lip, turning around again as she paced in front of the door to Nathan's office, snapping off another mental equivalent to "shut up and lemme pace dammit" in the general vicinity of the office's interior. The idea had started to percolate sometime during the end of the summer. It had grown, steadily, while Haroun was confined to the medlab, Alison clinging to the notion as a way to reassure herself that no matter what, Haroun would live.

And now? Now it was generally driving her insane.

Nathan looked up from the Laotian file, his concentration utterly broken at this point. His eyes narrowed, and he smiled, very thinly and blandly. Tight focus, he thought. Tight focus and high volume.

#GET IN HERE.#

"OW!" The aggrieved protest in the hallway was both startled and loud - and the thoughts accompanying it highly indignant. Opening the door, Alison sidled inside, glancing out in the hallway like some detective from an old film noir movie, making sure no one had overheard her or seen her go in.

Sighing, she made her way to the chair in front of him and slumped down on it, giving him a reproachful look. "That hurt, y'know." And tried to stop from tappig one foot nervously, twiddling her thumbs instead.

Nathan raised an eyebrow at the twiddling thumbs. The movement was almost hypnotic. "It was meant to," he said, "or at least to get your attention. What are you doing, and why do you need to do it in the hall outside my office? I'm trying to pretend I understand what's going on with the mutant birth rate in Southeast Asia."

"Oh. Okay." And with that, the telepathic shout was neatly forgotten about. Entirely. "Erm. More people which means more babies which means a higher mutant birth rate," Alison rattled off the first thing that came to her mind, still twiddling her thumbs. Looking down only made the motion smoother and faster. "So. Yeah. Um... there's this thing I've been thinking about since this summer and this thing is driving me nuts now cause it won't go away and it's a really confusing thing but I think I want to do it and... help?" she finished meekly, stopping to see what Nathan might have to say. "Please?"

Nathan closed the Laos file and leaned back in his chair. "If I can," he said very patiently. "But you need to tell me what it is you're pondering doing, first."

"Um. Well." The nervousness was nearly palpable by now and short of exploding, Alison added the foot tapping to the thumb twiddling without missing a beat. "I sorta want to ask Haroun something cause I think I shot him down on it and he's not thinking that I want that only it turns out I do and," she leaned forward, hands mercifully parting, moving instead to illustrate her words, "only I don't know how to ask him and I can't even say it loud and I'm so pathetic," she finished piteously, falling back in the chair to hug herself, looking wretched.

Nathan raised the other eyebrow. "Try this," he said, perfectly evenly. "'Marry me, you hunk of semi-plastic burning love?'"

A flat, unamused look greeted that solemn declaration and Alison refrained from making a strangling gesture in return, though her hands did twitch slightly. She started to say something and instead sighed, burying her face in her hands and muttering something unintelligible.

"What was that?" Nathan asked innocently. "I'm a what?" She didn't speak up, and he grinned a little, shamelessly. "Oh, come on. If I can't tease you, who can?" When there was no answer to that, he gave her a more serious look. "If you can't say it aloud," he suggested, "perhaps practice? Just pretend I'm Haroun." He smirked again, suddenly. "Note that the door is closed, so none of the kids will walk by and get the wrong idea."

"Am not practicing that on you," Alison grumbled darkly, though there was a hint of grudging acceptance of the teasing somewhere in her voice. Maybe. "Nathan, I can't even practice asking in front of the mirror..." she trailed off, shaking her head. "How pathetic is that? Huh?"

"Not pathetic in the slightest. How long did it take me to ask Moira?" Nathan pointed out. "I fussed and fretted for... what, five months, even after I'd made up my mind that I was spending the rest of my life with her."

Hands still framing her face, Alison gave him a suddenly amused look. "Yeah, but that's because you're old and senile. I'm young and sharp, still. I'm supposed to be able to handle this whole marriage concept....or something." But hey, being able to say the word was progress, right?

"I think it's harder when you're younger," Nathan said shrewdly. "I was terrified, with Aliya. What feels huge and scary in your twenties is a little easier to handle when you're almost forty."

Alison's eyes widened a bit at that and she looked positively horrified. "And it took you five months!" she wailed out. "So what's it going to take me, two whole years? At least? I mean, with the age difference and all and if you calculate..." She groaned and hid her face once more.

"You have a meltdown on me," Nathan said, "and I'll do what I told Haroun I was doing to make you this twitchy and start pinching you telekinetically. Look at me, Alison," he said more firmly. "You can do the hardest thing you've ever done in a moment, right?" ... okay, so that was a little overly philosophical. "And I don't think this qualifies as that. Really," he said quickly. "But don't think there's some kind of standard timeframe for this sort of situation."

And it wasn't as though she could... just yet. Shifty eyed, Alison bit her lip and took a deep breath. "Sooo... working on you know, just finding the perfect ring, say, would be an okay thing to concentrate on first?" She really, truly hoped he'd say yes.

"That would be a very good way to ease into it, yes. Actually, that's how I eased into it." Nathan grinned a little. "Rahne ever tell you that she helped me pick the design I finally used?"

With a slightly hunted expression, Alison shook her head from side to side. "Nu huh." Chewing on her lower lip, she tried not to look too pleading. "Was actually going to ask you and Lorna for help in making one. Maybe. Please?"

"Anything you want. Whenever you want it." His smile was faint, a strange sadness in it for a moment.

Despite her pre-occupation and current state of trepidation, the momentary change of mood didn't entirely escape Alison. She managed a somewhat impish smile for Nathan, though, and deliberately didn't ask. "If I ever run for the hills, drag my sorry butt back?"

"Chicken-hearted would-be bride retrieval service," he said, almost flippantly. "All part of the package. I'm a multi-talented man."

With absolutely no reverence at all, Alison stuck her tongue out at him.

And then promptly resumed the fidgeting.