xp_logs | Bishop and Morgan

Bishop and Morgan run across each other at the pool, gossip about Manuel and Laurie, then he is invited to stay on their couch since he stayed late making sure she didn't drown.

She had too much energy. It was a typical problem for the woman but having curled up on someone's lap for about two hours while enjoying a nap had only compounded the usual problem. Normally she only swam first thing in the morning but since it was too cold for her to justify running to herself she'd ended up back in the pool in the evening as well. The energy expended in the activity would hopefully be enough to exhaust her so she could sleep tonight, but swimming also at times had the reverse effect as well. She pushed herself harder because she knew she could and she had to in order to achieve what she wanted.

Bishop stepped into the pool area, pulling his tank top off and tossing it into his gym bag. Manuel had mentioned swimming and so he decided to check it out. He was surprised to find someone in it this late and even more surprised to find that someone was blue. After only meeting Morgan once he wasn't quite sure what to think of her. She could hang in a fire fight but that's all he really knew. Instead of jumping in and surprising her, Bishop stood at the edge of the pool in his shorts and waited to be seen.

Morgan paused at the end of the lane to catch her breath. She'd been pushing herself just a little harder than was likely to be productive. Exhaustion could be achieved without messing up her air support and she mentally scolded herself for acting like a amateur. Just before turning to go back at it she spotted the person standing there. If she was someone else she may have even jumped, instead her surprise only registered on her face. "Well, you don't live here." It was a stupid thing to say in a way, but it was late so she thought it was pertinent.

"Making that fact I'm standing here without you noticing all the more impressive." Bishop teased. She may have very well known he was there. He watched her in the pool for a moment before speaking again. "May I join you or is this a closed session?" Some people found it awkward sometimes but he was very particular about proper grammar for some unknown reason, even when people didn't tend to speak like that.

She narrowed her eyes at him in a good-natured glared. "Enormous black man is easy to overlook when a person is glancing at a wall," she pointed at the wall in the opposite direction from which he could be found, "or at water." Though it did speak quite a bit of how much attention she wasn't paying that she hadn't noticed him anyway. Getting soft Carlysle. The mental scolding took on Aleister's voice, as if she needed the added effect. "That depends," she started with a playful note, "are you one of those sorts who can't manage to stay in his own lane or even on his own half of the pool because he's too busy getting distracted and careening into my path?"

"I'm apparently big enough that I wouldn't be able to stay in my own lane regardless." He replied good-naturedly. "Why? Think I couldn't stand taking my eyes off you long enough to actually swim?" He was pointing out her confidence playfully. She was good looking and she knew it but he was sure he could manage to focus on the swimming. In his mind he was there on something close to business.

Pushing off from the wall, Morgan slowly stroked backward. "When did I say that I was going to be the distraction?" She smirked up at him, finding it a lot easier to look at someone that tall from the position of laying rather than bending her neck so far back. "I think it says more about your idea of a distraction than it does about mine, doesn't it?"

Bishop shook his head and shrugged it off. "Not as smooth as you think you are." He responded playfully, smirking back as he stepped down into the pool. "But you probably are as pretty as you think you are so I guess people let you get away with it."

"You sound unsure about my level of pretty," she teased with a smile. "Seriously, I didn't mean I was the distraction in the first place so that really is all on you. People get caught up in their heads when they swim, then careening off course occurs." She was still lazily swimming down her lane, eyes on Bishop as she made her way across the pool. "People let me get away with it because I am as smooth as I think when I am trying to be. And because I'm smarter than all that pretty makes it seem like." With a wink she flipped over in the water, disappearing below the surface. The white of her ponytail and the back of her one-piece bathing suit were more easily spotted than her skin was, blue on blue blurring the edges of her silhouette. She didn't resurface until she reached the other end.

With a laugh he let her have the last word. Bishop started his laps, wanting to get a feel for the size of the pool and how much swimming Manuel would likely be doing. It helped that Morgan was actually present. He didn't tell her about it but instead he watched her workout, gauging pace and energy level so that he could give more proper suggestions on training.

Truth be told, she was just feeling more playful than usual today. Of course, seeing the Girl Scout with her very first hang over that morning could do that to a person, or so she told herself. Forcing something less doom-inspiring on Sam likely contributed. After her Aleister-voiced inner scolding Morgan was back on proper form. She obviously favored the breaststroke, closely followed by the backstroke. She had both the pace and the stamina to swim for miles without tiring. Normally she cut it at one mile because she swam to wake up in the morning, not to wear herself out as she was now.

Although Morgan seemed to be going for intense, Bishop only did a couple laps and not even at a particularly hard pace. He was more interested in getting a feel for this specific pool. Once he finished he sat on the edge of the shallow end, his legs still in the water, watching the other person sometimes, or the room in general.

It was another twenty minutes before Morgan stopped in her laps again. She needed to stop in order to gauge her level of worn out. When she spotted Bishop sitting in the shallow end, though, she turned around and swam back to his end of the pool. Popping up beside him and leaning against the wall of the pool she smirked at him a little. "You look a bit dodgy just sitting there staring at the pool, you know. If you're trying to figure out how many people you could drown in it or what your powers' effect on the water and any inhabitants may be I'd appreciate it if you waited until I leave before attempting the practical portion of such speculation."

Bishop laughed softly. "I already know the answer to both of those. I'm helping Manuel plan a work-out to help him off the cane and I know he swims with you in the mornings. I'm just getting a feel for the pool and guessing how hard you push him."

"Aw," Morgan placed a hand over her heart, "my little Manny's making friends!" Snickering, she cleared her throat in an effort to stop. The little cartoon Manuel she had a mental image of going around giving people lollipops, though, made the effort to stop a considerable one. "I push him as hard as he can go. Then a little further because it's the only way you break a limit and set a new one. I'm not easy on him but I'm not going to break him either."

"Unlike yourself." Bishop shot back, noting how she was in the pool, after swimming that morning, and working to wear herself out. "I stuck around because I thought you'd break down mid lap and I'd have to go drag you out."

"I appreciate the concern." Her voice was oddly sincere, the teasing, sarcasm and playfulness all parring back for a moment. "My aim is to be able to sleep tonight, not end up in the sick bay from drowning myself accidentally." Morgan stretched languidly and hopped up onto the ledge to sit next to the cop. "Too much energy and I spent part of the afternoon asleep in someone's lap. Doesn't help to inspire sleep and being tired with the kids tomorrow is just asking for trouble."

"Maybe if you find that lap again that would help." Bishop said teasingly, though he appreciated that she was sincere about him spotting her. He didn't know her well but he was definitely feeling out if she had a crush on someone. He had been keeping out of the mansion happenings but, after staying there for a few weeks, he found the lives and times of the residents to be far more interested when he had faces to go with the names.

"Aw, and there I was hoping your lap was going to volunteer." Morgan lightly nudged him with her shoulder. "It was distraction lap. He watched TV and I fell asleep because that's what I do when put in front of a television. Being in his lap meant he couldn't go more insane looking for his brother. It was symbiotic lap dwelling but we're not precisely friends." She realized that last statement may have given the wrong impression, but it was an impression she was sure a number of the residents held so Morgan wasn't going to be too bothered by it if Bishop decided to embrace it as well.

Bishop nudged back a bit playfully, though he was careful because of his size compared to hers. "I wasn't going to offer mine because we're not precisely friends either, but if that doesn't matter then I can be a distraction lap for you." Other than occasionally entertaining the thoughts of Morgan's powers and the possibilities therein he never considered Morgan in any sort of relationship capacity. They were both too similar and with how that was it wouldn't be good for anything beyond friendship and sharing stories.

"Oh the many, varied things I've done with people I'm not precisely friends with," she said whimsically, waving a hand through the air. She yawned and decided her work in the pool was clearly done. "Remind me to tell you about the guy and the chicken suit sometime. It might put you off fried chicken for a bit, though." She shook her head in a way that suggested she felt slightly sorry for someone. For who was unclear.

"Then I might hold off on that story, forever." He said with a laugh, standing and offering her a hand to help her up politely. He noticed she was done so there was no more fear of having to drag her out of the pool to keep her from drowning.

"Really not going to blame you there." Morgan, pretending she was a more typical female for once, took the offered hand to help her stand up. "Thanks." She pulled her hair out of its ponytail, wrung it out and began to braid it as she meandered in the general direction of the locker rooms. "Are you actually going back to the city tonight or ending up here? You're welcome to the couch in my suite if you want it. I promise neither Laurie nor I sleep walk."

"I was going to drive back but I wouldn't mind avoiding the trip. I'm not sure I've met Laurie though. I wouldn't want to startle her when she woke up. Or be somewhere against mansion rules." He wasn't much one to follow rules just for the sake of them being rules but there was no reason for him to get someone in trouble when they were helping him out. He had ended up staying longer than expected.

Morgan thought of Laurie's potential reactions to find a large, attractive man on their couch in the morning. They were all incredibly amusing. "It's not against the rules, it's not like we're students sneaking boys in past curfew." Morgan affected a conspiring tone of voice for that, the words followed by a smile. "I could offer you half of my bed but people who aren't me tend to find that awkward and uncomfortable and popping too many personal bubbles too quickly. Though I do have a gun safe if you have yours on you and don't want to make the security dwarf have a conniption."

"I have a small lock box for when I travel. I also should stick to the couch. I appreciate you hosting me." Bishop said it all with a smile, picking up his gym bag. He moved in alongside Morgan to follow. "With how people talk to Laurie on the journals I though she was still a student." He pondered for a moment. "She should stop taking their shit." He knew how the dynamic worked and he wasn't assigning blame to anyone or taking any sides, he just felt she didn't come off as the strong person he was sure everyone here could be.

"She's a recent graduate, and she's shinier and newer in a lot of ways than some of the others. It's not a bad thing, she just has retained a level of innocence others haven't thanks to their various life experiences." She shrugged, wrapping a towel around herself as they left the pool area behind them. "I'm working, quietly, on the confidence thing first. She'll stop taking their shit eventually, but she's got to realize they aren't right first. She's got some work to do, just like the rest of us. Hers is just more obvious more of the time."

"She's the girl I told to get drunk, that's right. I suppose if she hasn't done something that usual then she is more innocent than the average person. I'm sure with you working on her that she'll be advancing quickly, though." Morgan was, as far as Bishop could tell, one of the mansion's world class mercenaries.

Oh, so he was one of the trouble makers! Morgan narrowed her eyes at him, though the look was more playful than filled with malice. "You should have told her how to get drunk properly. She's sworn off going near the stuff now since no one explained pacing to her, obviously."

"Why would they? The first time I got drunk I had friends waking me up to give me another shot after I had passed out. That's an important part of the experience." He looked back to Morgan and narrowed his eyes. "You weren't too easy on her, were you?" Bishop said playfully.

She shrugged and gave him an utterly innocent expression. "Aye, I would have, but the girl was on a mission. Besides, you can't tell her no when she asks for the next drink so politely. Laurie did herself in, but she got the object lesson. All of them, I think." If not then she'd just repeat it until she did, Morgan figured.

"Then I suppose the mission was a success." Bishop followed Morgan up toward her room, stepping in behind her and looking it over, setting his gym bag quietly at the end of the couch. If Laurie was already asleep he didn't want to wake her.

"Only as part of a larger mission. It's step one, I think." She disappeared into her bedroom for a few moments and reappeared with bedding piled in her arms. Even though the air on her skin and damp hair made her want to shiver Morgan took the time to make the couch up properly for Bishop. Pajamas would be so much warmer than the swimsuit she was still wearing. "If you need anything just poke me, yeah? I'm a light sleeper."

Noticing her coldness, Bishop helped. He nodded to her offer, taking a moment to settle in on the couch, his legs hanging well over the arm. "Thank you and have a good night." He smiled appreciatively.

"Night, love." Morgan headed back to her room, but paused in the doorway. "I'm always available to cuddle you back to sleep if you wake with nightmares," she joked with a smile before closing the door mostly shut. She left it open a little in case he really did need anything.