Doug and Kyle - Sparring and Chatting (backdated)

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Backdated to November. Kyle and Doug have a sparring session, and then spend the after-spar talking about Dori's dad and what can be done about him.


The 'Danger Gym' might not have been as versatile as the high-tech room of the mansion it was jokingly named for, but for the purpose of a sparring match, it served just fine. Kyle and Doug were fairly regular occupants, as they each tended to be a good partner for blowing off steam when necessary. Kyle's superior athleticism generally was matched by Doug's advantage in body language, and so sparring bouts were generally something of a tossup, going back and forth until the two wordlessly decided when they were through. That was the other reason they worked well together - they knew each other well enough to not have to fill up the space with a lot of unnecessary talking.

Until they were done working out their aggression, at least.

For Kyle, it was less of practice on moves he could do without thinking as almost an exercise in control - sparring Doug meant he had to think, and think -fast-, and not rely on his usual approach of throwing himself in headfirst, and think about the fight fifteen seconds after he'd kicked someone in the face or jumped on them and started throwing punches.

He learned the hard way that jumping on any of his teammates meant anything from being thrown across the room (Garrison) to thrown across the room (Fred) or bamf'd across the room (Kurt) or kicked across the room (the indignity of his own girlfriend!).

Plus not turning into a snarling clawing rage-monkey when someone had you in a really painful armbar was good for controlling his temper under other circumstances - like when teaching the mouthiest Sophomore English Class ever.

For Doug, it was a chance to let the reins off a little bit more than he could even with any of his teammates, with perhaps the exception of Sarah. A healing factor meant that he could do things like wrench Kyle's shoulder the way he would on an actual mission. There was still some measure of the formality and tacit agreement to not do certain things that was inherent in sparring, but less than usual.

"Here, let me help with that," Doug told Kyle as they went into the post-workout routine of unwrapping hands and mopping at sweat with towels. He braced against Kyle's chest and twisted his arm back into its natural position so that it could heal up correctly.

The pop as Kyle's shoulder clicked back into place was audible even over the muted grunt of pain. "Who even taught you that, because holy fuck I want to write them a hate letter." He said, rolling his shoulder several times until it moved smoothly. "Seriously, next time we are going to figure out how I can deal with that because fuck, it's like my entire arm shuts down."

"You know I'm not entirely sure? If I had to guess, though, Remy or North." It could have also been Pete. Any of the three men were vicious enough to use a technique like that. Doug shrugged. "At this point, I'm such a mishmash of different people teaching me different things, it's hard to separate them out." Which was especially true for him, given how his power worked.

"Well, if you figure it out, they're going on my list of people that get hate letters. I type em out all neat on a real honest to shit typewriter and everything." Kyle said. "Course, then Dori's like "Kyle, you can't write hate letters to my -dad-, because it'll make it worse" and then I just go hit things. You know, like this short dude I know who puts me in armbars. How's the ear?"

"Eh. Thankful you hit it with your heel and not the claws." Kyle's athleticism and superhuman grace meant that he tended to respond to things like armbars with crazy flips and rolls and a kick to the head that could have been straight out of a capoeira video. Doug rubbed at said ear and then turned to Kyle. "Wait, what about Dori's dad? What's the grand high dickcheese done this time?"

"Same old. He makes eighty hojillion dollars, killed her trust fund, and won't sign anything saying he refuses to contribute to her education, so she can't get financial aid, and is stuck with a bunch of loans and a job that pays min wage, and she's at the point where I just covered her groceries, because she eats as much as I do, and now her shitheel dad's threatening to do the same thing to her baby bro if he doesn't dump his girlfriend." Kyle explained. "I bet you can guess what fun genetics the girlfriend rocks too. I'd bet money he never paid her mom any child support either, just because he's eleven kinds of dickhead. I mean, the asshole actually pulled the "she"s not mine" and there was a paternity test and everything."

"Oh, I hate -that- guy," Doug muttered. His hands clenched around the remains of the tape he was holding. He liked Dori. She and Kyle made a good couple, and she was one of Doug's 'people' - she liked some of the same nerdy things he did, and was just generally a good person. And anyone like Dori's dad, who went out of his way to be a jackass to good people, made him cranky.

He sighed, knowing Kyle probably wouldn't be on board for some 'gray hat' solutions to the problem. Still... "We gotta do something about that."

"Yeah, all I got is trying to get her to talk to Angelo, but she's reluctant - I mean, you know, she thinks its a bother, and Angelo's all like, avoiding people anyway. Dude cancelled a sparring match on me." Kyle said, after sitting down to pick tape off his feet - taping down his claws meant a lot lower chance of clawing someone in the ear. "At this point, I'm not even sure I'd try real hard to talk you out of..." he made a typing gesture with one hand. "you know."

Doug raised his eyes heavenward. "Lead me not into temptation, I can find it fine on my own, thanks." He pursed his lips. "Because, I mean, people are immediately going to be suspicious when her dad's accounts start losing money and her college fund starts gaining it." Not that he couldn't likely figure out a way to cover his tracks, but Dori's dad needed to be taught a lesson in the worst way. "I'll see if I can't work on Angelo. What about Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law?"

"He's in DC doing some Harvey Birdman thing." Kyle said. 'And don't take this the wrong way, but Warren's rich. It isn't that I think he wouldn't help, because I think he would, he's a good guy, but..." He shrugged. "I think it'll be a money thing for him, and yeah, it's a money thing but it's not just a money thing. It's a..." He scratched one eyebrow, thinking, and the tension in his jaw and hands showed how much Kyle was working on not showing how angry he was about all this. "If it was a money thing, I'd just keep buying Dori's groceries, or hell, I'd just get Wade to, or you or something. It's not a money thing. It's a .. he's her dad. My parents don't make that much, they don't get the mutant thing and my mom still used to send me t-shirts and boxers from Target because she gave a crap. Dori's dad just slammed the fucking door in her face."

There was a twinge in Doug's expression at the mention of parents, there and gone faster than most might notice. Unless you had his advantages, or knew him about as well as Kyle, or Angelo, or a handful of others. He wasn't sure which would be worse, if his parents slammed the door in his face if he were to return to Denver, or if they didn't. "I can see that," he said after a pause. Angelo would understand, about the money, and the parents, and all of it.

"You go all emo, I'm going to mule kick you in the ear again." Kyle said, blandly. "Seriously, I actually am not sure I could control my shit if I met the guy and I usually have pretty good control over my shit these days. Dude just makes me want to actually make him fucking hurt, and it is seriously wicked uncool."

"If you're looking for moral guidance, don't look at me, dude." Doug was as angry as Kyle was about the way Doreen's dad had (and continued to) treated her, and he had a lot less compunction about punching the guy in the face should they ever meet. "I'll see if I can't pry Angelo out of his whatever."

"Tell him I'll voluntarily eat your salsa if he does, just so he can laugh his ass off at me." Kyle offered. "We can kill two rabbits with one trap - see what we can do about Dori's dad, and give Ange a project to work on to get him out of his funk."

"Projects are good, yeah," was the acknowledgement. After all, Doug knew from experience how effective having a project could be at getting you out of a funk. It was the tried and tested way of getting him out of a good deep wallow, after all.