xp_logs | Alison and Nathan, backdated to August 3rd

The day before Asgard, Alison and Nathan find each other down by the lake. She sings! He fusses! They plot!

He supposed he should be glad that the arm he'd injured last Saturday was the same one he'd taken the bullet in back in May. At least this way he was somewhat used to favoring it, and he still had one more or less completely good arm. Silver lining and all that crap.

Nathan sighed, rubbing at his still tightly-wrapped wrist as he stared out at the lake. It was quiet down here at this time of the morning, which was precisely what he'd wanted. The suite had felt a little stifling again after Moira had headed down to the lab, and so he'd ventured out, hoping to find someplace with a minimum of students. This would do nicely, at least for now.

Of course, there was never a moment's quiet and solitude to be had on the grounds, just as in the mansion itself. The sound of footsteps walking at a steady clip soon caught his attention, only slightly off with one of them always shorter than the other. The path near the lake had been Alison's favorite lately ~ a pause by the lake was the perfect break point before she resumed her walk (which would soon get back to being jogging, dammit it).

Nathan stared in the direction of the approaching footsteps, well aware of who it was but still weighing his options. He was faster than she was at the moment. Flight was definitely a possibility. But if Alison caught him running away from her, he was probably never going to live it down. He just didn't want... he stopped, his jaw clenching, and took a deep breath, trying to let the tension drain away. Alison. Alison wouldn't think loudly at him about subjects he didn't want to discuss. So he stayed where he was, sitting on the bench, and listened to the footsteps get closer.

Flopping down to look at the lake and bask in the sun seemed like a perfectly fine idea to Alison. After all, she'd been doing so every morning since she'd started her morning walks - it wasn't her fault every single soul in the school had taken up lake gazing lately. So she plopped down on the grass with token care for her leg and then flopped onto her back, smiling up at the sun a bit. The nice, toasty snuggly sun. The smell of freshly mown grass tickled her nose as she closed her eyes, relaxing gradually.

Nathan stared at her for a long moment, then caught himself smiling. He was really glad he hadn't run, he thought almost wistfully. "You'll be back to jogging before you know it," he said, almost managing the light tone.

A smiled edged the corner of her lips but she didn't move, perfectly content with basking in the sun. "I've been enjoying the break," she confided quietly, taking in a deep breath. A butterfly flew by, zig zagging here and there in an pattern that made sense only to itself. "But I have to admit it'll be nice to be able to do stuff again. I've been wanting to jog for a while now, for one."

Nathan watched the butterfly. "I love Moira," he said abruptly, rubbing at his wrapped wrist. "She tells me I can't go near the punching bag, but then she finds other stuff for me to do that's almost as fun. Well, except they're not quite so masochistic, but still. I'm in love with a genius."

"Love is a many-splendored thing," Alison half sung out, quiet conviction in her voice. "Love lifts us up where we belong." Strains of some of the songs from Moulin Rouge echoed in her mind, a voice singing out 'All you need is love!" in clear tones.

"I always liked the other song," Nathan said with a soft chuckle. "'Come What May'? Suppose that means I'm a big sap at heart, but then, we already knew that."

"And there's no mountain too high
No river too wide
Sing out this song I'll be there by your side."

Alison grinned as she stopped singing, clearly in a good mood. "You're talking to the original sap here. There's really not much more I can say other than encourage you fully into sapdoom and maybe suggest we make membership cards and find a secret password or handshake." She chuckled, winking at him.

"Maybe you can help me come up with a suitably sappy way to propose to Moira," Nathan said and then blinked, astonished that he'd actually said that aloud.

Blink.

Blink blink.

Alison turned her head to stare at him for a moment then hopped up to a seating position to stare at him, rather like a jack-in-the-box, grinning widely. "No way!" And after a moment's pause she grinned in delight, laughter bubbling up. "Way! Of course I can! Ha!"

Nathan couldn't bring himself to respond to her obvious joy. "I can't believe I--" He stopped, squeezing the bridge of his nose for a moment. Was that all it took? A sunny day, a pleasantly frivolous conversation with a friend, and his mind bounced right back to the sort of thing that had seemed so important before last Saturday? Humans were fundamentally selfish creatures, he thought with a sigh... but no, when he thought of it, it had occurred to him a couple of times this past week, too. When Moira had been curled up beside him, reassuring him with her presence that it was going to be all right, that they'd get through this, it had struck him more than once that he wanted to do the same for her for the rest of their lives, that he wanted the whole world to know that... "Gah," he said, frustrated, and tried to muster a smile as he looked back at her. "Sorry. The infamous circular thinking again. Um, yes. Way."

For someone who was pondering marriage, Alison would have thought he'd be a bit more thrilled with the notion himself. Then again... she could guess at what has sidetracked him. She leaned back on her elbows, still smilling while she looked at him, considering. "The world keeps turning, y'know," she finally said softly.

"Inevitable, huh?" Nathan studied her for a long moment, a faint, tired little smile tugging at his lips. Columbia had gone through her thoughts, he'd seen it, but it had been there and gone again. She hadn't... thrown it at him, like almost everyone else seemed to be doing. "I... meant to apologize to you," he said a bit uncertainly. "About last Sunday. I wasn't really with it."

"Course you weren't." How could he have been? She just shrugged a bit, accepting the apology, and smiled. He was talking now and considering marrying someone meant he was thinking of building something. She smiled a bit, remembering a piano tune from long ago and a beloved voice singing a song to her. The butterly drifted by again, closely followed by a busily droning bee. "It's the basic things that keep you grounded. Family. Friends. Home."

Nathan blinked at her, then rubbed his eyes at the odd afterimage of a little girl in pigtails that was suddenly surimposed on the Alison he knew. Weird... She was still smiling, and he tilted his head, regarding her thoughtfully. "I..." He stopped, shaking his head again. "Do you ever feel like you're daring the universe?"

"First day I really had that feeling was when I told my dad what he could do with the scholarship to Harvard he'd gotten for me. And told him I was going to be a singer." Alison whistled quietly, remembering that day only too well. "He still won't talk to me over that. He had already been telling his friends how I'd work at the firm with him, y'see."

Nathan absorbed the information, then grinned tentatively. "Did I ever tell you that I am a lawyer?" he asked. She blinked at him. "No, seriously. Passed the bar and everything."

Alison did the blinking thing again, staring at him for a moment, before chuckling quietly. "Heh. Why am I not surprised? I passed all the exams and was ready to go to school. Dad was pretty pleased with my results too." She flopped back in the grass, staring up pensively. "It was not joy to see me break the family tradition."

"I never practiced, of course," Nathan said, watching her amusement fade. "'Nathan Morrow' passed the bar in New Mexico and sort of dropped off the face of the earth." The silence between them lingered for a long moment before he broke it again. "But you're happy with the choices you made, aren't you? Even if it's still causing tension between you and your father..."

"No tension when you're not talking," Alison pointed out mildly. "Mom sneaks out letters or emails to me now and then. Media had a field trip with it, but my publicist somehow managed to pull off a miracle and mostly distracted them with other stuff." She smiled a bit, remembering the frighteningly energetic man and how he'd loved to set up the reporters each and every time he had the chance. "I don't regret a single thing. Not even coming out." But she was sad at losing her career, still. She always would be, she knew.

"No regrets," Nathan said dryly, but his eyes were warm as they lingered on her. "Novel idea. I'll have to give it some thought." He blinked, then realized they'd gone rather far astray from their original topic of conversation. He hadn't meant to open up old wounds, that was for certain... "Um, so. The proposal thing... I'm still searching for the perfect idea. Haven't settled on anything except for the fact that it's got to be thoroughly public... and no, not because I'm worried about her saying no." The goofy smile slipped out before he could help it. "I told her on Santorini I wanted to shout it from the mountaintops."

An idea took form and Alison started to grin a bit. Ooh. Now that would be shouting it out loud, all right. "Well." She thought about it a bit more, grin growing wider and decidedly sharper. "City has a PA system, no? And there are lovely parks or public squares all over town that are just covered in flowers, and well, people. These days." She looked up at him, batting her eyes. "Think we can talk the city people into letting you do that?"

"Well..." He smiled, but sighed a little. "I was thinking public would probably have to be restricted to the school, at this point. Don't think I ought to be leaving school grounds anytime in the near future."

Phooey. She pouted a bit but relented. "Pool party. Make it a Hawaiin Luau and propose to her with a horrible print shirt. Make it memorable. Also, you get to see her in a skimpy bathing suit and print sarong and all. And everyone will be there. And we can still use the school PA system to boot."

Skimpy bathing suits were of the good, Nathan thought. Print shirts, not so much. Still, it was an interesting mental image. "So you're thinking a theme thing," he said thoughtfully. "What else could be loud and public besides a Hawaiian party?"

"It's summer," Alison replied serenely. "Think about it. A luau. Fresh flowers as necklaces. Coconut drinks with neat little paper umbrellas in 'em. The little paper umbrellas are important. The band will sing of course. Fireworks," she grinned, "by myself and Jubilee later on when the sun sets." Clearly, she favored the Hawaiin party.

But still. It would be his party. And Moira's. "Hrm. Well. You could make it the regular old poolside thing. Or we could get some fairground event type going. I'm sure we can manage the rental of a few things, maybe even a Ferris wheel?"

"A Ferris..." Nathan laughed suddenly, rubbing at his wrist again as color flooded into his face. "Sorry," he said, grinning helplessly at her. "I really do want to do this, Alison, and I do want to make a spectacle of myself... I'm not sure why I'm quailing."

"Cause if you run when Moira wants to maim you for making a spectacle of it all, she'll never ever forgive you for it?" Alison grinned up at him impishly. Seeing Nathan smile like that, and it had been a real one if a bit helpless, was nice. Very nice. "You know. You could always ask Hank for something really... flashy."

Uh-oh. That sounded ominous. "Such as?" Nathan asked leadingly, the smile still playing on his lips.

He was rewarded with a disarming smile and Alison lifted her leg up and let it fall to the ground. Hard. The brace bleeped at her admonishingly, words longer than they should ever allowed to be spewing out. "Translation. Don't do that. Hank made the brace, didja know that?" This was followed by a very bright smile.

"Ah. Point taken." Rubbing at his wrist again, Nathan stared out at the lake for a long moment, his expression going pensive again. "Do I have any business doing this?" he asked finally, not looking at Alison. "Thinking about things like this... look at what happened when I sauntered off to New York to do something normal..."

"Why don't you let her decide?" Alison asked softly, smiling at him gently. "She's a grown woman who has had her share of sorrow, Nathan. As well as joy." She looked up for a while, pondering. "Our lives aren't normal. What we do isn't normal. I don't think we should begrudge ourselves any chance for joy we may get."

"Hard to wrap my mind around it, in a way," Nathan confessed. "That what I want and what I should do can be the same thing..."

"Sometimes, we're our own worst judges." And jury. And executioner. Alison reached out to prod him in the ribs lightly and grinned. "And hey. Maybe Moira will be all about the want and should do being the same thing too."

"Are you suggesting that we both have the same bad habits?" Nathan asked, mustering a deadpan look. "Gosh, next you'll be calling us codependent..."

"Moi? Never," was the easy reply, as Alison decided that basking in the sunlight while trying to help a man embarass himself as much as possible while proposing was far too much fun.

"It'll work out," Nathan said, smiling again, if a little uncertainly. "Won't it?" Damn, he sounded pitiful. He tried to amend that, and only made things worse. "I mean, things do sometimes work out. They don't always have to blow up in your face." Okay, so the joke was pretty pitiful, too.

"It'll go just fine, Nathan," Alison smiled at him, murmuring the words soothingly. And woe betide anyone attempting to ruin the moment, as far as she was concerned. "Of course, you have to decide how you'll ask her, if anything's to go well."

"Right." He looked almost wistful for a moment. "I almost wish I could do it on Muir... I know that's not precisely public, but it's home, in a way." His smile came back, turning softer and warmer with nostalgia. "There should be dancing," he said suddenly. "Possibly also mistletoe, even if it's out of season."

Alison took a slow breath and held it for a moment, before releasing it slowly. "Whatever you chose, Nathan... it'll be perfect. Because you chose it. For her."

"I never really got the chance to do this," Nathan said, his eyes going distant again. "With Aliya. We knew we wanted to get married, but she had to do all kinds of sneaking around behind the scenes and negotiating to get us permission. Sort of sucked the romance out of it."

"Then you should live every second of it now for all it's worth." The wind swept over them lightly once more, the sun warming gently still. Alison wrinkled her nose and sneezed suddenly, even as a dandelion fluff danced in the air around them before flitting off. "I suspect Moira could do with that too."

"I told Moira once she made me feel like a teenager," Nathan said, focusing on Alison again with a sudden smile. "In retrospect, it's kind of disturbing.... but I still wouldn't trade it." He took a deep breath and then let it out, his smile turning a bit rueful. "World keeps turning," he said, echoing Alison's words from earlier. "Amazing how easy it is to let it, after a certain point."

"That is disturbing," she groused, wrinkling her nose. "We have enough of those here." She winked and then looked over the lake, the clouds drifting overhead lazily. "Some things you have to let go. There's no moving forward if we don't. And there's no seeing to the present and ensure the future, if we can't move out of the past."

"Good advice," Nathan said, and then chuckled. "Easier said than done, but good advice." He took another deep breath, letting it out again. "I think right now," he said briskly, "I'm just going to enjoy sitting here with you. Living in the moment and all."

Alison just smiled at that, because really - what more was there to add? She let the sun's warmth wash over her, listening to the occasional bee or dragonfly whir by them.