xp_logs | What do you do when things have all gone to hell?

Taking the stairs two at a time going down was something of a learned skill, and Shinobi was grateful that he didn't manage to trip and kill himself in his rush to get to the basement. Clad in a t-shirt and jeans, a carton of cigarettes and his lighter in one hand, he hurries his way over to Sarah's door, and - always the gentleman - lifts a hand to knock. Even if he's now a gentleman with a silver ring through his right eyebrow and a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach he can't quite shake.

Sarah is perched up on the desk, throwing darts at the dartboard when Shinobi arrives. She throws three darts in quick succession, but instead of sticking, they hit with such force that they bounce back and fall to the floor. "Come in." Her hair is pulled back, around two bone horns that had not been there this morning, like the bones from her back and the patch of bone armor now forming on her shoulder.

Never let it be said that playing poker doesn't teach anyone useful life skills. Pushing the door open, Shinobi slips inside, and his expression doesn't even twitch when he sees the state Sarah is in. "Hi," he offers simply, closing the door behind himself before beginning to make his way towards the desk, pausing to crouch and scoop up the darts on his way, offering them and the gift of nicotine once he's gotten closer.

"Hey," she says, a sort of defeated smile on her face. She takes the cigarettes and puts them beside her, taking the darts and throwing them once more at the board. This time they stick, but she's obviously throwing them much harder than is really necessary to get them to the board. Especially since she's not even halfway across the room. With the darts out of the way, she returns her attention to the cigarettes.

He's patient enough to wait for the darts to be out of the way again before he leans over, locating himself an un-armored portion of Sarah's face to give a light kiss. "Maybe we should do your clubbing part of the deal tonight," he offers thoughtfully, trying to lighten her mood with a faint, hopeful smile. "With those horns, you'd be the belle of the ball, way I hear it. They look good."

"You sure you trust me enough to go out with me?" she asks with a bitter look, taking a long drag off of the now lit cigarette in her hand. "Apparently I've taken to trying to beat the hell out of people for no reason in my spare time."

"I trust you more than I trust damn near everybody else under this roof," Shinobi replies seriously, slowly shaking his head. "And that's rubbish. Not the type of person you are. Shiro's word, I presume?" He cocks his head to the side curiously, frowning a touch to himself.

"Yeah," she says, blowing out smoke, "Shiro saw me attack Betsy for no good reason, and she was the one who knocked me out. Then she left me there in the computer lab." She adds, "He told me to be careful. Like I didn't already fucking know _that_." She chuckles, just a touch amused.

Oh. That's why he had that sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "I knew it was her," he mutters under his breath, mostly to himself as he _just_ manages to keep his expression from darkening. Well.. much.

"So yeah. Your girlfriend's dangerous." The amusement is lost again, in favor of dark sarcasm. She takes another drag from the cigarette, and hops off of the desk to go find the ashtray.

"My girlfriend is capable. _Braddock_ is dangerous." Without really thinking about it, he reaches for a cigarette of his own, snatching up his lighter so that he can light up. "You, I'd trust with my life in a second, Sarah. Nothing's going to change that."

She grabs the ashtray from the floor by the couch, and moves it to the desk, tapping ashes from her cigarette into it and taking her seat on the desk again. She hunches over, forearms resting on the tops of her legs and looks up at him. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," Shinobi replies sincerely, offering her what he hopes is a reassuring smile around his cigarette. "I trust you implicitly. I mean, I don't share shower space with just _anybody_, now, do I?"

Sarah grins a little, but continues to hunch over, legs that normally swing off the desk when she's in a good mood remain very still. "I'd hope not. If you are, I'd like to know who, so I can remind them exactly who your girlfriend is, and what her mutation does."

With a slightly relieved smile, Shinobi shifts his cigarette to be held between his fingers so that he can duck down and kiss the tip of Sarah's nose. "Never going to happen. I'm lucky I can handle just _you_. Rather tire a bloke out, you know."

Alright, now she's amused. Very much so. "Oh?" She smiles wickedly. "Do go on."

"What's to tell?" Shinobi chuckles, grinning lopsidedly and cocking his head to one side. "Rather a different workout routine than I'm used to. Taking a bit of time to get used to it. Bloody fun learning curve, though."

Sarah finally sits up, taking another drag off of her cigarette. "It is fun, isn't it?" She puts the cigarette out in the ashtray, thankful to be a little distracted. "Course, it helps that we go well together."

He grins lopsidedly, nodding once and taking a quick drag before letting his own cigarette follow suit to the ashtray, even if the poor thing barely got smoked at all. "It _is_ fun.. and yes, we do work well together, don't we?" Shinobi wiggles his eyebrows. "How'd that happen? Girl like you and a pretty-pretty rich schmuck like me?"

"Besides the fact that you're obviously blind, and crazy as all hell? Hell if I know," she says with a smile, "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were putting something in the cigarettes."

Shinobi snorts, smiling amusedly and arching his ring-toting eyebrow. "I won't argue crazy, but I'm pretty sure I can see okay," he muses, reaching out to idly trace a fingertip along the edge of one of the horns. Because really, he _does_ like them. "I just have better taste than most people, that's all."

"You're so fucking weird," she says with a laugh, "Do you realize how hard I've tried to get rid of these things?"

"If I wasn't weird, would you still love me?" Shinobi questions innocently, wiggling his eyebrows and shrugging lazily. "Very hard, I'm sure. I like you with or without them, though."

She looks up at him playfully. "It depends. Would you still bring me cigarettes?"

"Probably," Shinobi replies after a moment spent pretending to think it over, nodding to himself and trying to hide a grin.

"Only probably?" Sarah bit her bottom lip, and smiled. "What if I got naked?"

"Then I definitely would," Shinobi nods, grinning cheerfully.

"What about that?" She nods over her shoulder to the outfit hanging up in the corner. Too bad she can't wear it now.

With a curious tilt of his head, Shinobi half-turns so that he can look over his shoulder towards the indicated corner, blinking twice. "I think I'd drop the cigarettes, actually," he says after a moment, smiling oddly. "You'll look.. very, very good in that."

"I thought so too." There's a hint of disappointment in her voice now. "And it wasn't too pretty-pretty."

He frowns a touch as he hears the disappointment, looking back to Sarah with a faint shake of his head. "No past-tense," he chides gently, reaching over to lightly rest his hand against one of her cheeks. "We'll still go out for dinner, let you make everybody's jaws hit the floor. Maybe not tonight, if you don't feel up to it.. but we will."

"I can't tonight. It'll take me awhile to pull all of this back in, and the way I'm feeling, it'll be about thirty seconds before they come back out again. But soon. I promise." She smiles, nearly melting into his hand.

"Whenever you feel up to it," Shinobi nods, mirroring the smile and letting his thumb fondly stroke against her cheek. "If you think going out for some angry loud music might help.. tomorrow, say.. I picked up that mesh shirt I bribed you with initially while we were out." His smile goes angelic.

"Oh?" She raises both eyebrows in curious amusement, nodding a little. "I think I could handle that. If only to get to see that shirt."

"I could run up and get it," Shinobi suggests thoughtfully, trailing off before he bats his eyelashes, smiling sweetly. "But nah. It's fun to make you wait." Two can play at that game, obviously.

Sarah laughs, swatting him playfully. "That's okay. The fun part is what's underneath, and I've got that right here."

Shinobi tries not to look too pleased at the response, grinning and absently rubbing the swatted spot. "You sweet-talker, you."

"Yeah, I try. Can't you tell?" She pushes herself forward a little, getting ready to hop off of the desk. "Let's go upstairs. Since nobody here goes anywhere on Friday nights, I have a feeling we'll get interrupted down here."

"Well, I suppose you cuss me out less than most people," Shinobi muses, trying to hide a grin as he offers one arm. "What? Go out Friday nights? Why would somebody wanna do something silly and, oh.. healthy, like that?"

"...and I've yet to kick your ass." She hops off of the desk and takes him arm, resting her cheek on his shoulder for a moment. "Because we're at mutant daycare, and why would anyone want to do a thing like leaving?"

He makes a thoughtful noise, carefully kissing the top of Sarah's head. "And you've yet to kick my ass," he agrees, nodding sagely. "Eh.. the school's just got too many goody-two-shoes and scared people in it. The big bad world's going to eat them if they go for a walk outside once in a while."

"The big bad world _can_ eat me for all I care," she says with a grin, "They haven't killed me yet."

"Nuh-uh. _I'm_ the only one who gets to eat you," Shinobi tuts, watching for a reaction out of the corner of his eye. The corruption's definitely been working, hasn't it?

Sarah _stops_, and her expression of surprise quickly changes to a very wicked smile. "Yes, yes you do."

Shinobi allows himself a smug grin, wiggling his eyebrows cheerfully. "Guess we better get upstairs then, huh? Distractions.. can't eat with too many distractions."