xp_logs | (no subject)

x-shinobi.livejournal.com posting in

Sarah's not sure why she's so eager to go up and meet Shinobi. Maybe she's checking him out... he is a Shaw afterall. But Emma trusts him, and so Sarah's got no reason not to. Maybe because he offered her cigarettes. She'd dropped the habit after getting busted for lifting them from a shady cigarette shop near where the tunnels were, but she still missed it. Maybe, she thought, they'd get along just fine.

One can hope, at least. Shinobi is very easy to spot once one can see outside, having reclaimed his seat on the stairs out front where he had met Shiro, though this time, his white coat's been replaced with a heavier black one. He's fashioned a small pile of snow to his right, and a silver cigarette case has been stood up with it as a support, two missing from the otherwise full case. One filter pokes out from the snow next to the case - the other's presently perched between the asian boy's lips as he peers pensively out towards the grounds.

Sarah's ill-equiped for the snow, really, but she's not one to think about that, and goes out onto the front porch in jeans and a sweatshirt. Her only saving grace is that the sweatshirt hasn't been shredded yet. The jeans, on the other hand, have seen their better days. She closes the door softly behind her, shaking off the initial chill. "Hey."

With a sudden poof of smoke from his nostrils as the voice startles him from his throughts, Shinobi looks back over his shoulder, squinting for a moment before recognition dawns and he relaxes considerably. "Hey," he echos, already reaching for the lighter in his pocket, nodding down at the cigarettes. "Help yourself."

Sarah takes a cigarette, and stops. "I suppose I should introduce myself first, before stealing your cigarettes." She grins, and holds out her hand. "'m Sarah. I live in the basement with Jono."

With a grin, Shinobi reaches up to give the offered hand a shake, with a grip that would be comfortably firm by most peoples' standards. "Shinobi. Obviously. Pleasure to meet one of my fellow deviants." With a waggling of his eyebrows, he offers the lighter with his other hand, with a questioning tilt of his head. Should he pass the lighter up, or helpfully flame on for her?

"Likewise." She takes the lighter from him, and lights her cigarette, passing it back to him. She takes a long draw, and it's almost like meeting an old friend again. She breathes the smoke out, looking back at Shinobi. "It's been a while." She brushes snow off of the railing, and balances on it with her back against a post. "So your talk with Emma was rough?"

Inclining his head, he accepts the lighter back when it's offered, glancing between it and his coat before standing it up in the snow next to the case. "It was.. enlightening," Shinobi replies after a moment's thought, suddenly sounding very tired. "I had no idea what my father was up to.. I can see why people are so very fond of him." He snorts, scowling for a moment before chasing the anger off with a long drag from his cigarette.

"Yeah, it's kind of hard to like a guy who's tried to kill you twice." And then she laughs. "Though, the first time, I think he may have had every right to. We were breaking and entering after all." She flicks ashes onto the snow-covered bushes below her. She would rub her hands together for heat, if they weren't still crusted over in bone.

"He's tried to kill you, personally?" Shinobi blinks, looking up with a tilt of his head. A moment's consideration, and he cracks a rather wide grin, nodding his approval. "You must do a better job of irritating than I do. I'll have to ask you for lessons." His eyes briefly move towards Sarah's hands, just long enough to figure out what's covering them before he returns his gaze to the grounds at large, not wishing to stare. Stlll, it's best not to assume his looking went unnoticed, and he sounds genuinely curious when he speaks next. "Your hands.. are they always like that?" He's inexperienced in dealing with people, so his tact may leave something to be desired.. but he is trying.

Sarah nods. "Armed guards the first time, and Sentinels the second. They took Emma, so I'm assuming the Sentinels were to kill everybody else with her. That's me, Jono, and Brian. A Sentinel for each one." She talks about it easily, like it wasn't a big deal. When Shinobi asks about her hands, she looks down at them for a moment, flexing fingers around patches of bone. "No, not all the time. I was pissed off earlier, and my mutation reacted." She takes another drag from her cigarette.

"Emma assures me my father is not long for this world, if it's any consolation," Shinobi says after a long moment spent mulling over the girl's words, the time spent squashing his anger back down into its little box where it belongs. Now was not the time to waste it, and not on someone undeserving. "I intend to help her as much as I can. He's a danger to all of us." After a brief pause, he adds "Sorry to hear you were irritated. If it would help, you can keep the cigarette case. I can get another one."

"I've heard." Sarah leaves it there, not particularly willing to go into details. And she smiles. "No, no, that's okay. I spend the better part of my life pissed off for one reason or another, just ask the rest of the mansion. If I started getting gifts, It would give me a reason to be pissed off all the time. And some of the happy little kids here wouldn't know how to cope," she says dryly.

He doesn't seem inclined to pry, either, simply nodding once and cracking a smile when she does. "Sounds familiar," Shinobi muses, a hand coming up to absentmindedly rake back through his hair, thoroughly mussing it up worse than it already had been. "This is likely to be my first Christmas where there's even a miniscule chance I'll get something, even if it's just a lump of coal. I can use that, at least. Cold in New York."

She shivers involuntarily, but fights it back and tries not to think about how cold she really is. "Yeah. I'm not sure I remember the last time I got a Christmas present, but I guess that what happens when you don't have a family anymore. Or if you have a jackass one." The last comment is an afterthought. Taking the last draw from her cigarette, she drops the rest of it into the snow, where there's already a nice little pile of filters. She leans her head against the pillar behind her.

Shinobi's observant enough that the shiver catches the corner of his eye, and he blinks, already reaching up to start undoing his coat. "Cold?" he asks curiously, offering Sarah a slight grin. "You're welcome to my coat, if you need it." Once the offer is made, he backtracks a little, making an understanding noise. "I'd offer you my family, but I wouldn't wish that on someone I didn't like, nevermind someone I find to be such pleasant company."

She nods and takes his coat with a small smile. "I'll try not to tear it up." She sits silently for a minute, and shakes her head. "I think I'd rather have my family back, thanks."

"Don't worry if you do, I don't mind." With a reassuring smile, he passes the coat up, absently rubbing at his arms through his longsleeves as the cold becomes a bit easier to notice without the jacket in the way. "I can certainly understand that," he replies to the last, a bit more quietly.

"I'm sorry." She says it, empathizing with much of what he's going through. Bad families, holidays that didn't mean much, not being willing to pass on what you've been through to anybody. She looks back out over the darkened snow-covered horizon. It looks like a Christmas card, sort of.

Slowly, Shinobi shakes his head, looking back up at her with a slight grin. "You don't have anything to apologize to me for, Sarah. If anyone here should apologize, I should be apologizing to you. I may not like him much, but father's.. father, and since I know he wouldn't apologize if he were telepathically posessed into it.. I should do it for him."

Sarah considers for a moment, and turns back to face him again. "Hand me another cigarette and we'll call it even."

Blinking once, Shinobi can't quite keep from laughing a bit at that, smiling broadly and nodding his head. "That sounds fair enough to me," he muses, dutifully plucking a cigarette from the case and the lighter from the snow, offering both of them up for Sarah's use.

She lights the new cigarette and hands the lighter back down to him. "And to think some of the kids here think I haven't gotten into the holiday spirit." She's sarcastic, of course. Her leg itches, and for a moment she tries to keep the bone from breaking through. Eventually though, she gives up, and it rips through the denim of her jeans. She pulls it out, smoke from the cigarette and her breath mixing in the cold air.

He accepts the lighter back and replaces it in the snow, with a lopsided smile. "Your cheer is quite blinding, yes," he agrees, plucking his cigarette from between his lips and eyeing the filter mournfully before it joins the others that have been cast aside. They never do last long enough. After seeing the bone on Sarah's hands, and her promise to try and keep from poking holes in his jacket, the sound of tearing denim doesn't catch him by too much surprise, and he even refrains from staring. He does look a bit surprised, though, as the bone is removed wholesale, having not been warned about that facet of the power in particular. "Wish I could grow things to beat people about the neck and shoulders with," he muses after a moment, mostly to himself.

"No, you don't. I promise. While it's nice to have a never-ending supply of sharp and very solid weapons... it just isn't worth it." There's not a tree within throwing distance, so she just throws it out into the yard. It sails out of sight, but from the sound it makes when it lands, it went pretty far. There's a little blood on her hands, and she wipes it casually on her jeans.

"I'll take your word for it," Shinobi replies after a moment, mentally berating himself for his thoughtlessness. "You do know a lot better than I do, after all." His eyes are drawn towards the blood, and he frowns faintly, hesitating a moment before hazarding "There should be a small package of tissues in the left pocket of the coat, if you need some."

She shrugs. "That's okay. These jeans are pretty much done for anyway. They'll go in the pile of shredded clothes by the end of the night." She takes another drag from the cigarette. "Thanks anyway."

"Anytime." He flashes a quick grin before glancing down to the cigarette case again, rubbing his arms before giving up and reaching out to snatch up a fresh cigarette and his lighter. That'll warm him up.

"You want to go inside after these?" She starts, considering how cold he must be. "You know, so you don't catch pneumonia, and I don't feel like a complete bitch for stealing your jacket?"

"You didn't steal it," Shinobi chuckles, looking up with the as-yet unlit cigarette held between his fingers. "I offered it. After these, though, I think a heated room will definitely be in order." After a pause, he adds, "And some coffee. I think I know where the kitchen is.."

"And if I don't know where the kitchen is by now, I've been spending too much time in the basement." She smiles, and then adds, "Eventually we'll get a fridge in there, and I'll never have to leave."

"You would rob your loving populace of your presence?" Shinobi gasps, placing a hand to his chest with a mock-scandalized expression. Then, he waves his hand dismissively, grinning and finally getting his cigarette lit, waiting to speak again until he's taken a long drag. "Do what you will. So long as I can come visit, it's all good."

Sarah laughs. "Oh, no. Trust me, some of them will insist on bringing the love down to me. The sign that says 'Go the fuck away' doesn't fool any of them for a minute. What I'm really doing is looking for a friend." She pulls the hair out of her face, careful not to scratch herself. "And as long as you don't bring things to decorate the hallway with, you're welcome any time. We've got a playstation down there now."

"The only decoration I may bring you is an ash tray, I promise," Shinobi chuckles, grinning and absently folding his arms across his chest, drawing his hands back into his sleeves for the added warmth. Fortunately, his sleeves are a bit too long anyway, so it isn't too difficult a task. "I'm pretty out of practice with the Playstation controller.. I'm likely due to brush up on it."

"You may have to fight Jono for it when he gets back, but I know I've played it enough in the past couple of days to want to play anything but. Besides, I prefer getting to hit real objects to just pressing buttons and watching something get hit." She shifts on the railing slightly, careful not to lose her balance.

"I can certainly understand that. There's something about that ache you get in your fingers after you really hit someb-- something -- that is remarkably soothing." Paying his near-slip no mind, doubting Sarah was someone to take offense by the idea, Shinobi looks up so that he can crack a grin, shrugging helplessly. "I'd offer to let you smack me around the gym sometime, but I think you'd kick my ass pretty soundly."

She grins, and shrugs in return. "I was trained by the Morlocks. I've been learning to give a sound ass-kicking since I was ten." She sobers up for a moment. "I take it very seriously."

"I'll definitely try to avoid pissing you off, then," Shinobi replies sincerely, offering her a warm grin. "I kind of like my face arranged the way it is.. I get the feeling anyone who got on your badside would need to be either a shapeshifter or willing to undergo lots of reconstructive surgery to be recognizable afterwards."

"If I have my way, yes." She says it almost absently, and takes another quick drag from her cigarette. "But that's only if you really piss me off." Sarah's gotten to the point where she's cold now, even with Shinobi's coat. She can only imagine how cold he probably is.

He's shivering, if one watches closely enough, but he's either still reasonably comfortable or content to wait to go back inside when they're both ready. "Still, I'd much rather be on your good side. It seems like a pleasant place to be."

Shrugging, she takes a final drag from her cigarette. "It's not too bad to be on the good side of the monster in the basement." Exhaling the smoke, she drops the cigarette to the pile, and lets her arm hang loose by her side. "Ready when you are," she says. It looks like she's trying to curl up inside the warmth of the coat.

Without any arguement, he takes a moment to scoop up his lighter and the case of remaining cigarettes before getting to his feet, tucking the two into his pockets before brushing himself off. "You seem a very nice monster to me," Shinobi shrugs, taking his cigarette and flicking it down to the snow with a lopsided smile. He hops back up the steps and crosses to the front door, drawing it open and holding it. Apparently, he feels being a gentleman is not something that only women like Emma Frost deserve to be on the recieving end of. Self-proclaimed monsters get it, too.

Sarah manages to get off of the railing without killing herself, and watches with an amused smiles as he holds the door. "Thank you. Now, just wait till you get to know me, and you'll probably regret ever saying that."

"Bah. I regret nothing." With a downright playful grin, he gestures inside with a sweeping wave of his arm, just managing to refrain from wiggling his eyebrows. "Ladies first."

She walks inside, laughing. "Quit being so damn polite. It's just not normal."

"Normal's not always a good thing," Shinobi counters innocently, waiting for Sarah to move past before ducking inside behind her.

"Point taken." She's still shivering inside the coat, and she pulls it closer. "I think I'm going to keep this until I can feel my body again."

"Now you're stealing my jacket," Shinobi points out with a laugh, closing the door and rubbing at his arms again. "Go for it, it's all yours 'til you're ready to give it back."

"I'd smack you, but at this point there'd be blood involved and it isn't worth it. So... consider yourself smacked." She grins. "This coat sure is warm. I bet you wish you had a coat this warm," she says, with a mocking tone.

He dutifully "Ow!"s as he's told to consider himself smacked, and now, Shinobi can't in good conscience refrain from playfully waggling his eyebrows. With a theatrical sigh, he nods solemnly, placing a hand to his chest. "I do wish I had a coat that warm. I sure do hope I find my old one someday."

"That's too bad. I have a nice warm jacket." Sarah starts to put her hands in her back pockets, before remember that she can't. She shrugs and motions for Shinobi to follow her. "The kitchen is this way."

"It reminds me of my old jacket," Shinobi agrees solemnly. He brightens at the gesture, nodding and moving to fall into step alongside Sarah, rubbing his hands together for a moment to try warming them back up. "Thanks.. you want some coffee, too?"

"Nah, I'm not big on coffee. But I'll sit with you for a while, at least until I'm ready to give up your coat." She smiles, and leads him into the kitchen.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

x-foliate.livejournal.com

Oh MY God. You two are like, the ultimate cute liek woah.

(will stop using netspeak...now)

<3 times infinity I say.

Maybe she's checking him out... he is a Shaw afterall.
This made me laugh for a very, very long time. Might have something to do with it being six in the morning but STILL.