LOG: (Nathan, Marius) Don't play chicken with Nate

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While attempting to see just how much pushing his luck can take before it snaps, Marius learns why you never, ever try to out-disturb Nate.





Nothing like coming down for yet another test to find out that the person who was supposed to be administering it, your wife nonetheless, was "very busy just now, love, and have a seat?" After the first fifteen minutes, he'd gone back upstairs to get his marking.

Sitting on the - quite comfortable - couch in her office was not especially conducive to focusing, however. Especially with Rachel sound asleep in her crib on the other side of the room and emitting happy-contented-sleep-is-good baby thoughts. Add that to his own general and pervasive sleep deficit, and dozing was probably inevitable.

The gentle nudge of a cold, damp nose and furry head pushing itself under his arm and onto his lap wasn't particularly alarming. Rahne was a frequent fixture around the Medlab; he took this to be her way of letting him know Moira was ready for him now.

"Mmm. Hey, kiddo," Nathan murmured, opening his eyes at the same moment that he reached out to scratch the top of the wolf's head. "What are you doing running around the medlab on four legs?"

His head still a little foggy from his unintentional nap, it took him a moment to realize that the fur on the (rather large) wolf's head was the wrong color.

It was the first time Marius had ever smelled a double-take, and the expression that accompanied it was just as priceless. He raised his head from Nathan's lap and greeted him with a cheerful bark, tail pumping like a hydraulic.

Nathan's eyebrows headed for his hairline - and then his eyes narrowed dangerously. "Marius," he said, in something very close to a growl as he straightened.

Marius bounded back, grinning, and then bounced forward again to face Nathan. Something about the scent of teeth-grinding irritation was having a terminal effect on Marius' sense of self-preservation. He pushed himself onto his hindlegs and proceeded to jump up and down in a hopelessly futile attempt to put himself on eyelevel with a man who had three inches on him even when he was bipedal. Nathan failed to respond. Marius stopped, balancing on his hindlegs with forepaws turned safely inward, and took a moment to regard the stare that would have soldered iron.

Then he licked Nathan on the chin.

Nathan's eyes widened again. Then narrowed, as something occurred to him. "Have you," he said, his voice low and perfectly even, "been eating Rahne again?"

Marius prided himself on an open and cheerful view of sex, and all the opportunities this provided for a young man gleefully unencumbered by any sense of shame. Scandalizing him was almost impossible. Almost.

Marius had been right in thinking he could handle most disturbing thoughts. Unfortunately, as it turned out, innuendo about Rahne was not one of them.

Nathan tilted his head as the wolf sat down hard, a rather glazed look in his eyes. "I'm checking her for hickeys," he said, something resembling his sense of humor returning. "And if I find anything in alarming places, you and I have an appointment out behind the woodshed, boy."

Marius didn't notice Nathan leave to find Moira, although presently he did manage to rise long enough to stumble towards Rachel's crib and curl up by the base, whimpering gently. He didn't know if immersing himself in the happy-sleeping-baby waves would flush out his brain, but at this point anything was worth a try.