xp_logs | Guess who finally got it together?

Sarah's in the gym, because, what else would she be doing? When there's nothing else to do, at least she can make her boredom useful and go hit things. She wears baggy sweatpants, with their drawstring knotted, hanging low on her waist just below the bone forming flush with the curve of the top of her hip, and the ever present tanktop, not very pleasant as it's both sweaty and bloody. With a growl she lashes out at the punching bag, a couple of hard punches and a swift kick to the middle.

While the noises coming from within the gym were hardly cause for worry or a positive ID, Shinobi _was_ looking for someone in particular - or was going to be. He'd stopped in to make use of the lap pool, and as the sounds of a punching bag getting its ass kicked filtered into the locker room as he was getting dressed, he wondered if he had perhaps been saved a hunt. He gets his slacks belted before draping his towel around his neck, black t-shirt in hand as he pokes his still-wet head through the doorway into the gym, torn between brightening at finding his quarry and grimacing in pity at the punching bag's beating.

Sarah lets the bag finish swaying, pushing hair out of her eyes and off of her forehead. Too bad she isn't paying attention to the doorway. She looks down at her hands, realizes that she's been going at it for so long that it's beginning to bone armour over. She flexes her fingers and curses. Loudly.

Well, at least that answers his question. With a grimace, Shinobi suddenly has second thoughts about announcing his presence, which are promptly pushed aside. She's his friend - what's the worst thing that could happen? "I, uh, hope you weren't pretending that thing was me," he offers after a moment, his light tone hiding any genuine concern he might have over the idea. "You okay, Sarah?"

She turns around quickly, unaware that there had been anybody else in the room. "If I'd wanted to do that to you, I'd have found you and done it in person." It's supposed to reassure him, but in all actuality, it probably doesn't. She shrugs, holds up her hands. "They've boned over again."

"Good point." In an odd way, it does sort of reassure him, and his conversation with Shiro just after he'd arrived at the school echoes in his ears - with a ruthless woman, you always know where you stand. Well.. almost always. Shinobi peers towards her hands from where he stands, absently lifting one of his own to take up his towel and absently try getting his hair a bit more dry so he can get his shirt on at some point this century. "Maybe you should take up meditation or something.. if you haven't already, I mean. Or a formal martial art. Those are all about keeping control over yourself while you're working.. it might help."

"Logan's teaching me something. He says it's supposed to help. We'll see." She shrugs, and scratches absently around the bone on her hands. "How've you been?" She asks, finally.

He blinks a couple of times at the question, mostly because he's wondering why he's surprised he was asked. "Surviving," he finally decides, lifting his shoulders in a shrug. "What about you?"

"Keeping myself occupied. Training. Writing. Smoking." She grins a little at the 'smoking' part, hands finally coming to a rest on her hips. "Spending a lot of time in the basement, 'cause I can't go anywhere."

"Ah.. yeah, lots of smoking." Shinobi cracks a faint grin, glancing down for a moment before setting his towel down for a moment, so that he can see about tugging his shirt on, damp hair be damned. "Well, once you _can_ go somewhere.. want to go do something? I'm starting to get cabin fever, I think."

She smiles. "You don't have to ask me twice. I never go anywhere, but now that I _can't_, I feel boxed in." She doesn't directly watch him put his shirt on, but she is watching.

If Shinobi's noticed, he doesn't make mention of it, looking down while he tugs his shirt straight, ignoring the rather wild state it's left his hair in. "Well, I guess we'll just have to figure out what to do then," he grins, crouching long enough to scoop the towel back up. "Or, I suppose I could let _you_ figure that out, assuming you still want to corrupt the hell out of me and it wasn't just the vodka talking.." And just the vodka kissing him on the cheek, but he leaves that unsaid.

Laughing, Sarah shakes her head. "Oh no, you're not off the hook. It just won't do to stop at lesson one." She grins, and if she wasn't flushed already, she'd be blushing. Not that she'd ever admit that.

Unfortunately, Shinobi doesn't have an excuse for the bit of red his cheeks have picked up. "Don't do anything halfway, huh? I've always liked that trait in a person." He tries to hide his embarassment behind a grin, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Oh good." She says it in a way that makes it clear that she's not entirely serious, and more playful. "Feeling better?" She says it before she thinks, and before she can remind herself how awkward the conversation will probably be afterward. Damnit.

"Er.. yeah, I am. No more hacking up a lung." He nods once, managing to keep his grin despite the fact that he's suddenly a bit nervous. Nervous enough that he bites down on his tongue to keep from rambling.

She nods, and shifts on her feet. Did we mention she can't stand still when she's nervous? Or at least when there's an awkward moment going on. "Good to hear."

"So, you know.. whenever you're free to go paint the town red.. we can go terrorize some people." Shinobi pauses for a moment. "Probably myself, primarily, all things considered. You're going to drag me out to do all manner of bizarre things, aren't you?"

And she's laughing again. "Me do bizarre things? I have no idea what you're referring to." Apparently the innocent look isn't very affective when the one trying to look innocent has horns.

"Balloon animals you wouldn't bring back to Leech, I believe was the phrasing you used, about those parties.." Shinobi can't help but grin, quirking an eyebrow and absently rocking back on his heels. Staying still is definitely an overrated concept. "And I don't think I should attend one of those things entirely unprepared. Being able to speak in coherent sentences is a pretty nice thing."

"And being able to look at them without looking absolutely terrified is another." She grins, and shrugs. "But I don't suppose that'll happen before Friday, so I suppose I'll have to ease you in." Rolling her eyes, she mutters playfully, "Big wuss."

"Guilty." Shinobi keeps his grin, shrugging a shoulder and bouncing lightly on his heels. "But hey - this is a school. You'll just have to teach me how _not_ to be a wuss."

"Teaching people how to not be wusses. The Morlocks would be proud." There's a hint of sarcasm in her voice, and she stretches a little to ease muscles that aren't quite happy with the way her workout just _stopped_. She shrugs. "I don't suppose you have any suggestions on where to start? Anything you're dying to try?"

Shinobi squints a bit in thought, casting a glance off to the side as he considers this. "I'm actually not entirely sure.. my sheltered childhood's left me with a pretty limited idea of what's out there to try in the first place."

"Well, we've done the club thing, and you didn't completely freak out on us," Though his reaction to the leather halter was classic... "So maybe something similar so you get more used to it. Or different." She shrugs again.

"Hitting another club seems like a decent enough place to start," Shinobi says after a moment, unpocketing a hand so that he can run his fingers back through his hair, finally remembering that it needs straightening. "Someplace loud. Loud is good."

Sarah nods in agreement. "What would make all of this easier is if Auntie Selene was throwing a party. Those've got enough bizarre stuff to keep you busy for awhile. In fact, I think that's where the balloon animals were from." What would also make it easier is if she'd just get it over with and kiss him. Because lesson one point five. Yes.

Shinobi nods sagely, trying to keep his amusement at the woman being referred to as 'Auntie Selene' off of his face and managing to succeed. "Well, I could look into it, I suppose.. or ask Emma. If anyone'd know, she would."

"Yeah." She watches him bounce for a minute, and his constant movement finally gets to her. Not really that he's doing it, but she can guess why. "Would you stop that?" And then there's a repeat of New Years, except not. Because this time they're standing in the doorway to the gym, and this isn't just a kiss on the cheek. She keeps her hands on her hips, keeping the bones away from him.

Shinobi blinks twice, looking a touch confused, his bouncing halting without his really thinking about it. "Stop wh--" Well, he gets about half his question out, at least.. that's something, right? Then Sarah does a rather good job of making him forget what the hell he was saying, eyes widening in surprise. But is he complaining? Heeeell no.

Sarah pulls away, just a little, and grins. "Got you to stop bouncing," she says with a little shrug. "I owed you a New Years kiss."

It takes Shinobi a moment, but he manages to find his voice again, giving up on remembering what he was saying before. "Oh.. yes, I guess you did." He doesn't seem to be in a particular rush to pull away further, briefly glancing down and cracking a little grin. "Here's the tough question, though.. that all it was?"

"Nope." Not just a New Years kiss? Not the end of said kiss? Oh the games we play. She looks up at him expectantly. "Lesson number two. How not to be a wuss."

Quirking a brow, Shinobi peers back down at Sarah with a surprised expression that slowly turns into one of amusement. "You fight dirty," he observes, though he sounds almost approving. He must approve, because after he takes a moment to allow himself a paranoid glance over Sarah's shoulder and towards the rest of the gym to check for an unwanted audience, he leans in for a kiss before his head has a chance to get nervous.

For someone with as "sheltered" an upbringing as Shinobi claims, he's a surprisingly good kisser. In fact, while Sarah was making a mental note to call him a wuss for making sure they didn't have an audience, she's decided it's not such a big deal. Really.

He holds the kiss for a moment - longer than Sarah'd held hers, at least - before he pulls away, just enough to grin innocently and quietly speak up. "Still a wuss?"

Sarah laughs. "Yes. But we'll keep working on that." She nods, and gives him a look that's not so innocent. "It may take a while."

"That a threat or a promise?" Shinobi muses, quirking an eyebrow down at Sarah. After a quiet moment's consideration, he somewhat hesitantly adds, "You won't hurt me if you decide to hug me or something, you know.. if you're worried about it, I mean."

Sarah blinks, and looks down at her hands, which she'd almost forgotten were still tucked safely out of touch at her sides. "They're sharp." She says slowly, like she's trying to wrap her mind around how they'll hurt her, but not him. It should be the other way around.

"You won't hurt me," Shinobi replies gently, offering what he hopes is a reassuring smile. He takes a very small step back so that he can offer a hand in plain view, mentally flipping a little switch inside his head to make his body denser. Stronger. Much, much harder to hurt. "Trust me, Sarah. I promise, you won't hurt me."

She looks down at his hand, and back up at him for a moment, before bringing a bone encrusted hand up and in between them. There's spot of bone on both sides, and the skin is almost entirely the bright pink hue of irritated skin. She gingerly puts her hand on his, rubbing sharp fingers as gently as she can against it. Nothing happens, and her eyes light up.

With a slight grin, Shinobi's feeling bold enough to try and lace their fingers together, tilting his head slightly as he watches Sarah's reaction. If the bone bothers him at all, it isn't enough to even show up in his voice. "See? No harm done."

Sarah laughs, wiggling her fingers in between his. "This is going to take some getting used to..." She leaves the rest of her thought that even the Morlocks couldn't hold her hand while it was like this.

His grin broadens at the laugh, glancing down at the wiggling fingers with an amused expression. "Well, good thing I'm not going anywhere, then, huh? All the time in the world for you to get used to it."

Sarah stiffens, and looks directly at Shinobi. "Don't say that," she starts, shaking her head, "you'll jinx it. Don't."

Shinobi blinks once, startled, before slowly nodding his head, offering Sarah's fingers a light squeeze. "I'm sorry.. I won't say it again."

She softens a little, but not entirely. It's obvious by the spooked look in her eyes that she's had a bad experience with people who 'weren't going anywhere'. "It's okay."

The spooked look is enough to make him feel bad about his unfortunate choice in words, offering an apologetic smile before looking down to the floor. Shinobi's silent for a moment before he takes a deep breath, looking up again and mustering up a grin. "...so. Clubbing once you're free to go out?"

"Yes. And all sorts of other bizarre things. With loud music." It takes all she has, but she manages to put what she hopes is a halfway convincing smile on her face. "You sure you're up for it?"

"I won't know until we do it," Shinobi counters, smiling a little and, after a moment's hesitation, brings up his free hand to lightly poke Sarah on the nose. "Can't very well be a wuss and back out after all this, now can I?"

And there it is, her grin and mock-innocent look come back to the surface. "Not after all the progress we made today. We'd have to start all over."

He tries not to look _too_ relieved, though his smile does widen noticably. "All over?" Shinobi questions innocently, arching an eyebrow and slowly shaking his head. "Oh, heaven forbid. Best to just keep tromping on forward, then. The faster the corruption, the better."

"I like the way you think," she says with a wink, "My thoughts exactly."

"And people wonder why we get along." Shinobi grins cheerfully, tilting his head and thumbing over his shoulder towards the exit. "Fancy a smoke?"

She raises her eyebrow at him, and laughs. "Have I ever turned down a free cigarette? Honestly." She squeezes his hand, an entirely foreign gesture to her, and yet, she thinks maybe she could get used to it.

"It's only polite to ask." Continuing to grin, he nods his head back towards the locker room, briefly glancing down as his hand is squeezed. "G'wan and get cleaned up.. I'll even loan you my jacket again."