Laurie and Logan, Wednesday afternoon

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Logan finds Laurie on the archery range and gets an impromptu training lesson in.



Logan was on his way to the range to blow off some steam when his sensitive ears heard a sound he hadn't heard in a long time.

Archery.

Curious, he slowed his pace and changed his walk to an almost arrogant saunter that made very little noise as he moved. He came around a bend in the path to reveal one of the trainees - Laurie, he thought her name was - sending shaft after shaft into a target downrange.

She was, he noted, a very good shot with the weapon. She was pulling off a grouping the size of his fist from maybe a hundred meters.

Not too shabby.

Laurie grinned as she finished the last of the arrows in her quiver, noting that she'd gotten most of them into the bullseye with only a few stray shots. She was getting a lot better at this now that she was practicing regularly again. Soon enough she'd be able to move the target a little further, although she didn't want to get arrogant about it just yet, there were those stray shots to consider.

Logan advanced on her, still making absolutely as little noise as possible. She was in the zone, concentrating on nothing but her archery. Admirable focus but it'd get her killed if she didn't develop the situational awareness to go along with it.

"Nice shooting, kid." he said from just a pace behind her and off to one side.

Laurie jumped, dropping her bow and falling into the guard stance the Mr Garrison had been showing her even before she'd taken account of who was talking. When she saw who it was, she relaxed irritation evident in every line of her body.

"Mr Logan, do you often make a habit of scaring the crap out of students?" she asked, standing back up straight and relaxing her arms.

He noted the stance - Gar's teachings, by the looks of it. As gunned through the body of a teenaged girl. "Highlight of my day, kid. If only you didn't make it so easy." he said with a half-grin. Then he looked down the range.

"Pretty good with that thing. Gonna carry one into the field?" he asked.

"It did alright against the dinosaurs," Laurie replied, looking at the target and then back at him. "But I hadn't intended to take a bow with me, no."

She didn't mention that the idea of going into the field wasn't one she was looking forward to. She hoped that she never had to, not as a fighter anyway. She was quite happy just being the Medic.

Dinosaurs.

Right. Those.

"Got another quiver around here?" he asked. "Want to show you something."

"Just the one on my back," Laurie replied, curious.

She walked down to the target and started pulling arrows from it and placing them back in the quiver. It was be a little small on someone with Logan's girth but she assumed he knew how to adjust straps. Having collected all her arrows she walked back and handed it over to him without a word.

"It's not for me." he said. "I want you to keep that grouping in the target." he said, moving to her open side. "You think you can do that?" he asked.

Time to see if the girl had any brass in her whatsoever.

Laurie frowned, wondering where this was going but slinging the quiver back against her back and pulling her bow up into a firing position. "I can do it all day," she said, smiling a little at her own arrogance. Must be something about the man that made her feel defensive; she wasn't usually so smart mouthed to an adult.

Just as the girl was nocking the arrow back to her cheek he extended his hand and popped his claws, one on either side of her neck, the middle claw safely retracted. "Do I make you nervous?" he asked her with just a hint of feral growl to his voice. "I'd be careful if I were you. One slip and, well..." he said, leaving the girl to fill in the consequences.

What the hell? Laurie resisted the urge to turn her head and glare at him, knowing that those claws weren't just for show. Her hand trembled slightly as she held the arrow, trying to keep her body steady as she blinked at the target. "Um, do you often do this sort of thing? I'm just wondering if all the X-men are completely insane, or if I just had the misfortune to piss you off or something," she said softly, releasing the arrow and watching it fly over the target by inches. Damn it!

"Should let you know - I get scared, my hands shake." he said with a truly disturbing I'm-the-best-at-what-I-do grin. "So you might want to dial back the pheromones and take another shot. Be quick - the bad guy's getting away." he said. "You missed, by the way. By a mile. Just put a shaft into a bystander. He's gonna die unless you can put the bad guy down."

Laurie closed her eyes, trying to ignore the fear that was curling in her gut at the mention of shaky hands. She needed to control this, the Professor wouldn't let a crazy person onto the grounds, so Mr Logan wasn't crazy, just...a feral who didn't seem to realise that she wasn't a soldier, just a kid. She took a moment to breathe, even with the deadline he'd just stated you couldn't do anything well when you were freaking out. After a moment, she felt calmer and she opened her eyes again, taking note of the target and the prevailing breeze before aiming again and firing. It still missed the centre of the target, her hands shaking badly despite her attempts at calm but it hit it this time. At least she wasn't leaking now though, she would have been able to feel it if she was.

"You have to shoot faster." he told her. "Lives are on the line, Laurie. Every moment you hesitate, people are _dying_." he elaborated, keeping the mental pressure up. He'd explain what he was about after a few more attempts on her part.

To her credit, though, she had her smells under control. He wasn't two feet away and although she was nervous as fuck she wasn't projecting. Point for her.

Her hands clenched around the stock of the bow, and she lined up another arrow, shooting by instinct rather then even trying to aim now. It hit the bullseye, and she stared at it in shock, wondering why a completely wild shot had hit when her careful aiming had all gone south.

"I did it," she whispered, almost to herself as much as the man currently holding claws to her throat.

"Yeah. You did it." he agreed. "Once." He then retracted his claws - noting with some degree of pride that she didn't have a mark on her. "You want to be an X-Man, right?" he asked superfluously.

"I do," she said, finally turning around and lowering the bow. She rubbed at her neck, wincing at the ache from holding it so steady this entire time. She'd never noticed just how much she moved when she shot, it was a surprise. "Although, I don't think I exactly approve of the training technique you just engaged in, was it absolutely necessary to scare the living crap out of me like that?"

Logan nodded. "X-Men have to be prepared to act under extreme pressure. Lives can and do hang on it. And I'm gonna trust you at my back - with my life - I want to be sure you can handle it before you get out in the field and get somebody killed." he said. "You got a lot of work to do on situational awareness but now I've seen that if it gets a little warm you're not going to fold and go cryin' home to Momma."

"That'll do for now." he said, backing up another step or two. "Keep practicing, kid. You're a good shot."

Laurie nodded, slinging the bow over her shoulder and standing for a moment to get her knees under control, even though she couldn't do anything about the shaking of her hands. She clenched them for a second, keeping her eye on Logan as she got herself under control. She'd collapse later, after he was gone and she wasn't going to look like a complete child by collapsing into a heap and having a good cry.

"Thanks, um, I think I'm going to go inside now, I've got dinner to help with," she said finally, moving past him at a slow, steady walk, her back ramrod straight.

Logan left her to it, continuing his walk down to the firing range. He just hoped she learned the right lesson from what he was trying to teach.

He was, he was finding out, a fairly shitty teacher.