xp_logs | Nathan and Jim, Friday afternoon (Reply)

Nathan and Jim clean up after lunch out in the boathouse with Moira and Rachel. They chat about various things, including Jim's new code name, before they're both interrupted by their beepers.

"The first several times I did this, years and years ago, I'd always break at least one dish every time I tried." The dishes were washing themselves, piece by piece, dropping gently into the soapy water. The dishcloth moved over them, scrubbing plates in perfect interlocking circles, and up and down silverware. "Aliya used to threaten me." Each piece floated back up and under the cold water running into the other sink, before they deposited themselves into the hands of the man with the towel. "I eventually perfected it."

"You mean for trying it on the dishes, or until you did them?" Jim smiled slightly, picking up one of the damp plates from the pile and toweling it off. "I know the school has mountains of spare everything, but I've broken enough of Moira's dishes."

"I was insanely persistent. I told her it was a good character trait. She occasionally begged to differ." Nathan was leaning against the counter, not watching what he was doing. His telekinesis was extended far enough that he could feel what he was doing, and what he needed to do right now was keep an eye on Rachel, who was wandering around the living room occasionally hooting at things. "You know, I really don't know what she's doing? Apparently from apparently imitating an owl... oh God. Do owls eat squirrels?"

The younger man set the dish onto the counter top and moved to the next. "I'm pretty sure any rodent's fair game. Even the tree-rodents. And now somehow the image of owls and squirrels has crossed with a completely random one of dolphins catching fish thrown by trainers, and I think it needs to be kept from your daughter. Always."

Nathan nearly dropped a plate. "Um, yes." Rachel chose that moment to run into the kitchen, colliding with her father's legs. Nathan reached down and picked her up, and she squealed happily. "Speaking of animals, I was going to take her to the zoo one of these weekends."

"Lion!"

"And tigers and bears, oh my." She giggled at him, and Nathan raised an eyebrow at Jim. "She's becoming my straight man, obviously."

"Maybe you should invite Ororo. Although I don't know if visiting a zoo would be like easing the transition or just trip nostalgia triggers." Jim winced a little, turning the rag for a drier edge. "I'm not going to be able to move from DRing. The uniform weighs a lot less now but every time I get winded running I feel like a wuss because I remember Lorna's idea of bodyarmor is carrying something like forty extra pounds of metal."

Nathan gave him a tolerant look, turning his attention back to the dishes without putting Rachel down. "I'll admit to not minding the lighter uniform myself. My old one wasn't nearly as heavy as Lorna's, but it was a good deal heavier than everyone else's."

Jim nodded. "I admit, I kind of stole from that. I went ahead and asked for extra protection, too. Having bones broken does a lot for paranoia, especially when it'll actually matter to other people if you get the crap beaten out of you." Although the bizarre triptych of Forge, Clarice and Shiro variously consulting on the uniform design had been one of the more bizarre experiences of his existence.

"I've gone a whole six months without getting the crap beaten out of me," Nathan said somewhat flippantly. "I highly recommend it." Rachel tried to poke him in the eye, and he moved his head away, giving her a reproving look before he looked back at Jim, depositing the last of the silverware into the drying rack. "So... new leathers. Last official step to being back, then?"

"Yeah," Jim said. Cloth swiped the thick ceramic in slow, deliberate circles. "Almost. I was getting the uniform, so I finally took a codename, too. The potential identity issues there I'm not so worried about anymore."

"Oh?" Rachel squirmed, and Nathan leaned over to set her back on her feet. She toddled off without a backwards glance, and Nathan kept one eye on her and the other on Jim. "What did you settle on?"

Jim glanced up at the older man and his daughter to smile faintly from the plate and towel, white like the memory of sands blurred through salt. "Just went with Legion, since we are many," he replied. And thought, his mind not even flickering, Fuck you, Jack.

Plate dried, Jim set it down on the counter. "It only took me a year. Which means it's been a year. Am I the only one who finds it weird, that that much time has passed now? And I don't just mean from me taking a job."

"A year," Nathan said a bit vaguely, watching Rachel. It seemed like the appropriate point in the conversation to pay more attention to what she was doing and less to the conversation. It wasn't a decision made consciously, or at least not for conscious reasons. Rachel abruptly looked up at him and hooted, and he twitched. "Legion. Um... interesting choice. Appropriate, too."

The younger man's eyes glanced off Nathan's face again, though the visual confirmation wasn't necessary. The tone of his voice had been enough. That, and the fact Jim was well aware what was coming wasn't just the anniversary of his arrival at Xavier's. The subject change had been changed right back; there were problems there. But they'd just had a nice lunch, and Rachel was right there. This wasn't the time.

"I absorb religious stuff," Jim said. "Hopefully everyone's too polite to point out the obviously weird logic hole that the Jewish guy's referencing the New Testament. I'm just not that creative." He gave Nathan a half-smile. "I guess it could have been worse. There are no words for how relieved I was the guy who ended up Multiple Man was Jamie."

"Remind me to tell you the story behind 'Cable' one of these days. It's both embarassing and profane. Mind you, you'll probably have to get me drunk-" He was interrupted by his beeper, and as he dug in his pocket for it, Jim's went off as well. He managed to get his out first. "Sit Room," he said, then sighed and went over to pick up Rachel. "Grab her bag out of the closet for me? I'll drop her with Moira on our way by."