Nate and Lorna, gym.

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Nathan and Lorna spar. Then they fight. Then they spar.




He ought not to have waited to finish those last few papers before heading down to the gym, Nathan thought coolly, striding down the hall towards the gym doors. His email had pinged, and there had been Manuel's hysterical screed. Irritating. Very irritating.

Lorna was already inside, stretching, and Nathan nodded to her as he started his own warmup. "Noticed your name in a certain CC."

"Yeah, I told him to go fuck himself." She bent nearly double and pressed her hands to the floor, in excellent physical condition even given her total lack of activity for the last month. "Not in so many words, of course. But seriously, why would I give him the satisfaction of hurting him? Revenge is sweet but the high road is forever."

"I asked him if he was this paranoid because he couldn't read me anymore. I've been wondering about that," Nathan said, ignoring the twinges of protest from his back as he started to stretch. Marking involved far too much hunching over his desk. "The one I feel sorry for is Scott, if Manuel got hysterical with him about how we were 'threatening' him."

"We can kill--and have--with our brains. Apparently that's scary to people who have upset us." She shrugged and pulled her arm across her body. "I told him he was an idiot. I have bigger things to be afraid of and threatened by than him."

"I couldn't care less what he does," Nathan said. It came out icy and flat. "So long as he's not doing it to anyone I care about, or anyone here." He got back to his feet. "Just hand to hand?" he asked.

"Yeah, though I should warn you that my last sparring partner fought very dirty, so feel free to kick my ass if I slip." She shivered and shook off the memory of fighting Sabertooth. "I haven't done this by myself in a while."

"No need for ass-kicking. If we're no-powers, you're not laying a finger on me I don't want there," Nathan said, and proceeded to do something almost entirely uncharacteristic that would have shocked every sparring partner he'd had for the last two years, and attacked first.

It would have shocked her but since Sabertooth had done the same thing every time, there was instead a general sense of relief that he didn't have claws, teeth and a reach twice her own. Nevertheless, she had to dodge out of the way with indecent haste and no grace at all. "Shit."

"Focus," Nathan said through gritted teeth, pressing the attack. His eyes were like gray ice, boring into her. "I don't feel like chasing you around the mats, Lorna..."

"You surprised me." Dumb thing to have let him do. So was this likely. She stopped retreating and fended off instead of dodging his next attack, taking the blow to her chin without flinching when she couldn't get out of the way.

Nathan pulled enough of it so that it didn't quite knock her on her ass. As she stumbled backwards, he gave her a moment to recover her composure. Just a little bit of space, and then he was pushing the offensive again.

"So is this therapeutic?"

"No." It was all the breath she spared before taking another hit to the shoulder and rolling with the motion in order to lash back at him. "But give me a little bit."

Nathan blocked the hit easily. So sharp, his senses were so sharp. This was odd. "I'm not going anywhere."

Since he hadn't attacked back, she pressed on, still fighting conservatively, like they taught here, not what she'd learned there. If she could erase those months... "You're very patient, yes."

"Like hell. And you're holding back," Nathan said, and then exploded into motion, moving not far short of the speed and force that he would have used sparring with Domino. "Come on, Lorna. Stop thinking about hitting me and hit me."

At that intensity, her choices were defend herself or get ripped up. No... No claws. Not ripped up. Still hurt though. "Whatever, Morpheus." She didn't want to have to face Alex if she let Nate beat her. Lorna blocked Nate as best she could, focusing and letting muscle memory take over.

Nathan stopped abruptly, backing off. "Therapeutic yet?" he asked, watching her closely. There was a lot going on inside her head. He could see it in her eyes.

"Bite me, I'm trying to unlearn this not get it more deeply ingrained." She practically vibrated with tension, potential energy that she could have so easily released. Her eyes narrowed. "At least, I'm bleeding less than I would have been."

"Take a step back." Some of the intensity faded from Nathan's expression and posture, although he still regarded her measuringly. "You can't unlearn. You can release the tension, though."

She took a deep breath and tried to do that. She was facing him like he was dangerous. Not just dangerous--lethal. As though he, like Sabertooth, would try to kill her for making a mistake. "I don't want to fight that way. I don't want to be good at this."

"Did you ever do Tai Chi, with Alison?" Nathan asked.

"No." Another breath and still no less tense.

The rest of the tension was going from Nathan's posture. "After Youra, I couldn't spar," he said thoughtfully, after a moment of contemplation. "Haroun kicked me off the mats and told me to get my head straightened out. Because I was panicking. Anything close-in made me remember that hallway. I asked Alison to take me with her to some of her tai chi lessons. It helped," Nathan said more quietly. "Reminded me that you could move, and breath, without the violence being there, ready to drag you under with it."

"I'm not panicking though. It's not that this is hard, it's that it's too damn easy." Lorna shivered. "This was a bad idea."

"You are panicking," Nathan said. "You've just got it locked down very tightly beneath what you had to learn to survive, while you were with Magneto."

"Just fight me, damn it. I don't what you to psychoanalyze me. I have a therapist." She balled up her fists and ran at him, knowing it was a stupid attack but mostly just wanting him to shut up.

"Why do you want me to fight you?" Nathan said, sidestepping the angry rush and sweeping her legs out from under her. "You want to fight, but you don't. You want to exorcise this, but you're afraid of it."

She flipped back to her feet and attacked again. "Because you hit back so it's much more fun than hitting a punching bag." She hadn't landed a blow yet but didn't really care. "Too bad you talk so much."

"You want me to stop talking? Fine." Nathan had her back on the defensive in two seconds flat. Full-speed sparring, something he tended to indulge in with a very select few people here.

There was no time for surprise as her mind blanked and training took over. Even fully immersed, she barely was able to defend, driven back. Short, stinging blows that she couldn't quite block landed frequently but nothing like the devastation her body remembered. A half-sensed opening gave her a chance to strike back and she took it without hesitating.

Nathan shrugged off the blow, blocking out the moment of pain. He really didn't understand what she wanted here. He knew all too well how tempting it was to lose yourself in physical activity, but there was more at work here, and he didn't know what, shouldn't be playing with fire like this... One carefully placed kick had her stumbling backwards, and Nathan held up both hands.

"Enough."

"Not hardly." Lorna caught herself, her back pressed to the cool drywall. She was breathing hard, harder really than their match really warranted. "I told you that I didn't come down there to talk about it." She glared at him before turning away and slamming her fist into the wall in lieu of someone to fight.

"If you want a passive opponent, go reintroduce yourself to the punching bag. Or," Nathan said, his eyes narrowing a little, "spar with me with powers."

"No." The response was instant, not even half a moment's thought given to the denial. Powers were out of the question. She shook out her hand, flexing it slowly then hitting the wall again.

"Stop doing that!" Nathan snapped out in something very close to 'command voice'. He stalked over and grabbed Lorna's wrist.

She wrenched away, eyes wide. "Go away. I'll finish up by myself."

"Like hell. This isn't going to help." He didn't reach out to her again, though. "What do you want?"

She didn't hit the wall again thought she wanted to, rather hoping to manage enough pain that she could stop thinking for a little while. "I just wanted to work off some energy. That's all. Not to be lectured at."

"Then try not to be quite so blatant about your ambivalence," Nathan said thinly. "I don't feel right sparring with someone who's as afraid of being here as she is wanting it."

"Sorry. You startled me." Lorna took a breath and tilted her head to the side, eyeing him narrowly. 'You don't usually attack first."

"Things change. You don't usually land any hits on me hand-to-hand, either, but you managed a couple there." His eyes were hooded as he turned away, moving back across the mats.

"Yeah, and we both know why I can do that and why I don't want to fight like that." She crossed her arms, ignoring the aches and bruises already forming. "What the hell is up with you?"

"I'm not the man I used to be," Nathan said with a heavy, dark sort of humor as he turned to face her. "And now that I'm not running around in Africa with sufficient distraction, I'm having to stop and realize what that means."

"And what does that mean? Unless you can't tell me because I'm not on the team in which case...well, tell me anyway because you're my friend and I make you tasty food." She reached up and fixed her ponytail, a move more nervous than it was necessary.

"My head is empty," Nathan said, almost lightly. "Please don't ask me to elaborate. If I think too hard about it I wind up staring into empty space trying to figure out why it's too quiet."

Lorna stared, a thousand questions immediately presenting themselves, demanding answers and not a one that she could ask. She nodded slowly. "Okay, then do you want to try this again? Less with the trying to kill each other and more with the normal sparring of too much activity to think? We both need it."

Nathan gazed at her for a moment, then nodded. "We can dial it back a few," he said, then settled into a more customary defensive posture. "All right. Have at me."