Shiro and Haroun

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

XO and trainee discuss promotions after punching and kicking the crap out of each other. Shiro voices his doubts about himself, and Haroun tries to beat him over the head with some good advice.


Haroun bowed to Shiro then wiped some of the sweat off his brow. "That's enough for today." he said with a smile. "Good match. Think you got me with that last kick." he said, probing his ribs with a finger and wincing as they protested. "Showers." he said, gesturing towards the exit.

Shiro received a twisted little sadistic pleasure whenever he actually got a hit in on Haroun. "That's what you get when you leave yourself open," he said, echoing Haroun's claims from back when they'd first started.

Haroun grinned as Shiro used his own words back at him. "True enough. At least I'm not going to stew about it like someone we both know..." he said. "You've really improved over the last few months." he said seriously. "I've seen it, and I know Alison's seen it as well."

Peeling off his shirt and wiping his face with it, Shiro nodded. "Thank you. I have been working hard." An understatement, as "hard" wasn't enough to get anything done with the X-Men.

Haroun shucked his own shirt and tossed it into a pile to be gathered up later. "It shows." he said. "If you think you're ready, then I can talk to leaders." he said. "I think that Dazzler already agrees with my assessment."

"Honto?" Shiro asked, his voice cracking. Blushing, he threw his shirt in with Haroun's. "I-I appreciate it, sir, but I am not sure if I am ready yet . . ."

"No middle ground, Shiro. Either you're ready or you're not. I think you are. Do you think you're ready to step up?" he asked as he shed the rest of his training gear in preparation to take a richly-earned very hot shower. "As the Americans say, shit or get off the pot."

Shiro shook his head. "I do not have enough field experience yet. I might have the Danger Room trainee scenarios mastered, but I still am not completely comfortable with the variables."

"There is that." he said. "But you've tagged along on a few ops now. That business with Nimrod in Europe comes to mind." he said. "Handled yourself perfectly well. And each time we go out it's different - we train so we can anticipate as many variables as we can."

Shiro nodded slowly. Truth was, he desperately wanted to be on the team already. But he was nervous as all get out, and until he could master the anxiety, he wouldn't attempt to take the huge step. "I know. And I want to be an X-Man, but I still have much to learn."

Haroun nodded. "Well, if that's the way you want to play it that's fine." he said, heading into the shower. "Where, other than field-experience, do you think you're weakest?"

"Being in charge," Shiro responded, following Haroun to the next shower stall. "I am not capable of having authority yet. Like that scenario where I led you?" He still had bruises from that.

Haroun grinned. "We'll see if we can cue something up for you." he said as he stepped into the ferociously hot spray of his shower. "Hopefully you won't get your entire team shot out from under you. Again."

Shiro snorted. "I would appreciate that." Because that post-scenario lecture hadn't been fun. He'd rather have a double therapy session with Samson than go through that again.

Haroun shrugged. "That's up to you." he said. "You've got talent, I think. You need to relax, I think, and let your people do their jobs. Coordinate, but don't over-control them. Nobody likes their CO staring over their shoulder."

"The responsibility is daunting," Shiro admitted, "And I am still in the process of growing accustomed to it. I've learned from you and Alison and the other team leaders, but you all have very different styles, and that makes it all the more difficult to develop my own."

"I'd think you'd be grateful." he said offhandedly. "To be exposed to so many different styles, different sources of inspiration. Synthesis is up to you, but beware tunnel vision."

"Of course I am grateful," Shiro asserted, doing his best not to sound offended. "But that does not make the learning process any easier. I learn from all of you, but putting myself in this new position requires just as much time and effort as any other aspect of training, if not more."

"True." he said, finishing up his shower. "But nobody said this whole X-Man thing was going to be easy." he said, wrapping his hips with a towel while he dried himself with another. "It's a bloody and dangerous business likely to at best cripple you and at worst kill you dead inside of ten years. Twenty if you're good."

"And here I was, expecting this to be as easy as school," Shiro replied sarcastically. "Silly me."

"Only in Japan is school a fatal occurrence. I've heard about the suicide rates there." he said with a laugh. "I'll touch base with Alison, see what we can come up with to push you on small-unit tactics, strategy, and command structure theory." he said. "Talk to Scott, he's the undisputed master of strategy around here. I could listen to him for twenty years and not pick up as much as he does naturally."

"That is during high school and college entrance exam seasons," Shiro informed him as he turned off the shower and stepped out, wrapping his own towel around his waist. "And I am past those. Now I worry about some psychotic classmate losing it and shooting up my classroom," he said wryly.

"Keeps you on your toes." he said, getting an idea for a decidedly offbeat training scenario. "An alert student is a live student."

Shiro raised an eyebrow. He recognized that look on Haroun's face. "I am not doing a Columbine training scenario. That is just morbid and in bad taste."

"Didn't say you were. But we do do prospective new student pickups..." he said, then clammed up. Yeah. Adapt the South American job into something a little more generic ... that could work well. "Re-enacting Columbine would be tacky."

Shiro made a mental note to reread documents about such pickups. "I look forward to it." Pulling on his pants, he glanced at the clock on the wall. "Kuso. Late." He hastily put his shirt on, grabbed his socks and shoes, and headed out of the locker room, forgetting that his pants weren't zipped and his belt was unbuckled. "The only thing more dangerous than American students is girlfriends kept waiting. Ja ne."

Haroun just laughed as Shiro fled in such a unsettled state. Then he remembered that he hated to keep Alison waiting, and the laugh died off. Which reminded him - he was due to ambush his little songbird. He owed her a little something.