xp_logs | Shinobi and Domino, Friday night

After visiting with Nate and working out some of her frustration with Cecilia's help, Domino stops by to see one of the week's casualties she hadn't checked on yet. Shinobi doesn't mind the hugging at all.

The door to Shinobi's suite, as he'd taken to leaving it over the last week, was open. It made it easier to tell when he was in and available, as he was now - just distracted. Shinobi was seated crosslegged on his sofa with his laptop open in his lap, and a pair of headphones plugged into them, a certain degree of care taken to make sure the screen wasn't visible from the hall. He didn't think everybody moving up and down the hallway would be very appreciative of his solo Kill Bill-athon as he was.

Domino stopped in the doorway, studying the figure on the couch. He hadn't noticed her yet, and she took the opportunity to give him a quick once-over. Tired-looking, paler than he should be... still better than she'd expected, after hearing some of the details of the fight back on Monday. She reached out and knocked hard on the open door.

The knock made it rather more difficult to be oblivious, and Shinobi poked pause before he looked up. "Hey, Dom," he blinked, torn between perking cheerfully and treading very, very carefully. He opted for a middleground, offering a smile as he shifted the laptop and headphones onto the coffee table. "Can come in, if you want to."

Domino, without a word, came in and sat down beside him. She studied him for a long moment, and then leaned forward and hugged him tightly. "Don't," she said with a sigh when he might have said something in response. "Just don't. Thank fuck that if you had to run into a Mistra operative, it was one of Nate's admittedly still-brainwashed friends."

Shinobi managed not to squeek at the rather sudden hug, opening his mouth to say something just in time for Domino to cut him off. Obediently, he closed his mouth again, silently grateful his ribs had finished healing up as he leant into the hug, looping both arms around Domino's waist with a mute nod of agreement.

"Think I've gotten the whole story out of everyone by now," she said finally, leaning back but not removing her arm from around his shoulders. She was getting the very strong impression that it was helping. "Are you okay? Healing up all right?"

"Concussion's gone, and my ribs are fine," Shinobi confirmed quietly, somewhat reluctantly leaning back, himself. But, if the arm around his shoulders is staying, so will his arm around her waist. "I'm getting there. Not quite okay, but working on it."

"And what about in here?" She raised a hand, tapped a finger very gently against his forehead. All of the anger she had been feeling earlier had died down to embers, between the conversation with Cecilia and the look in Shinobi's eyes when he'd invited her in.

"That's the not-quite-okay part," Shinobi admitted, not entirely sure why he found the admission quite so embarassing. Nobody should be okay after all of that. "I got very lucky."

"I met him once," Domino said after a moment. "Foley, I mean. Rather... interesting guy." She was silent for a long moment, remembering. "Totally accidental meeting, actually. Mistra had sent him off on a job that intersected with ours. Shocked the shit out of me when he smiled at Nate and pointed out that he didn't have any orders to kill him, so did he want to get a drink? Shocked the shit out of Nate, too. Not that we took him up on it." Domino laughed a little, tiredly. "It's a loophole," she explained to Shinobi. "In the conditioning... that's why Nathan tried to shoot Charles. Didn't you wonder? When he could have exploded Charles's heart telekinetically from a block away, why he chose a gun?"

"I hadn't really stopped to think about it," he murmured, casting a brief glance towards the door with a small frown. "I hope I didn't fuck Foley up too badly.. he didn't want me dead, so it's kind of hard not to wish the same for him."

Domino sighed. "Nate tried to shoot Charles because a gun would work. He could convince himself that he didn't need to use his telekinesis, because a bullet would leave Charles just as dead. Foley, if I had to guess, told himself that you didn't need to be dead, you just needed to be out of the fight." She was silent for a long moment, some of the anger stirring again inside her. "That bastard MacInnis and his people are lucky they were gone by the time I got here. They're no better than Mistra."

"Didn't have orders to kill me, he said," Shinobi confirmed, reaching up to lightly rub at one of his temples. Just thinking about the guy made his head hurt.

"Perfect week I picked to be in the middle of the fucking Yukon. But I did have leads, so I thought it was more important to keep going..." She shook her head. "GW should be here tomorrow. His plane lands at some disgusting hour."

Shinobi nodded, eyeing Domino for a moment longer before he leant back over to give her a quick hug. "He have a ride in, or should I be very very nice and let you borrow the Jag to go get him?"

"Pete said not to worry about it." She scowled. "Rather like he said not to worry about Nate while I was away looking into leads." Not that she would ever task Pete himself with that. Not under any circumstances, and especially not after what had happened at that art exhibit.

"Sorry about that," Shinobi nodded, rubbing at the nape of his neck with a quick look given to his lap. "Moira, Scott, everybody and their uncle are doing their damnedest to reassure me that it wasn't my fault, and it wasn't, but you've got to admit that I didn't make a hell of a lot of a difference. Well.. gave 'em one more body to dig out of the warehouse while they got away with Nate, maybe, but not beyond that."

Domino actually did withdraw her arm this time, gazing at him disbelievingly. "If you hadn't already had one concussion this week, I'd give you a second," she said, part of her meaning it quite sincerely. "But I'll skip the literally-smacking sense into you part. Shinobi, you were taking on someone who's been the most dangerous kind of soldier for probably twenty years." She shook her head, her jaw tightening. "Any of these guys who survived to that age... I wouldn't have given myself good odds against Foley or Morgan." Whom she had also met, under very different circumstances.

Shinobi nodded, already missing the arm around his shoulders as he slouched back against the sofa tiredly. "I know. Honestly, I do. Having the helplessness confirmed just doesn't do much to make me feel better about it, that's all." He smiled apologetically, with a faint shrug of his shoulders. "I just need to corral Mister Cassidy into helping me focus when having really fucking loud noises blared at me so it doesn't happen again."

"See? You're already thinking through the problem." Domino gave into impulse and hugged him again, just as tightly as the first time. "Just don't blame yourself," she said, some of her own fatigue creeping into her voice. "Not for what happened in that warehouse, or afterwards. It's all them, okay? And I don't even mean the operatives you were fighting. Blame the Mistra directors and MacInnis's people, playing chess games with lives..."

He couldn't quite hold in the squeak this time, nodding and taking advantage of the hug to lightly plunk his head down onto Domino's shoulder. "I'm trying not to, Dom, I promise. Even making a little progress."

"Where's that girlfriend of yours?" Domino asked, striving for a lighter tone. "I ought to kick her ass for not being up here looking after you."

"With Amanda, I think," Shinobi replied after a moment's thought, not bothering to lift his head. It was comfortable where it was, and it wasn't getting pushed away (yet), so why lift it? "That, or Oscar-walking. Or both."

"Hmm. I may steal you, then." Young and cute and all wounded-looking. She had a very big weakness when it came to the ones that looked at her like kicked puppies. "I shouldn't talk," she went on, a trace of bitterness in her voice. "You don't see me up there planted outside Nate's door, do you?" She half-wished he had still been asleep when she'd gone back up.

"I don't see much of anything right now, I have my eyes closed," Shinobi countered innocently, blindly giving Domino a light poke in the belly. "Depending on the nature of the theft, though, we might be able to arrange something.. what did you have in mind?"

"I don't know. Getting out of here for a little while, at least..." She trailed off, leaning her head against his almost without thinking. "It hurts to see him like that," she said very softly. "Like he's so far away, so broken... I can't handle it, and I'm not going to indulge myself by having some kind of fucking teary breakdown."

"I won't tell if you don't," Shinobi offered, somewhat muffled by her shoulder. "As for getting out of here.. what time is it?"

She raised her free hand. "Eight-ish." This had already been a very long day.

Shinobi made a thoughtful noise, lifting his head just enough to peek towards the door. "Could go grab Amanda and Sarah, hit a club or a movie or something," he suggested.

"A movie would be nice," Domino said with a sigh. "Get lost in someone else's life for a couple of hours... not really liking mine at the moment."

"Then a movie it is." Reluctantly, Shinobi straightened up, but not before he gave Domino a kiss on the cheek. "Possibly even a stupidly funny one."

"I want popcorn," Domino said almost forlornly. "Can we get popcorn?"

"And nachos, and really terrible movie theater hotdogs," Shinobi confirmed, reaching up to carefully ruffle Domino's hair.

"I only get popcorn so I can whip it at people."

"Raisinettes are much better for that. They're harder."