Shinobi, Nathan - Pooooooooooool.

[x-shinobi.livejournal.com]

Following this meeting with Manuel, Nathan drags Shinobi out for that game of pool they owe each other. They talk, Shinobi is very good and doesn't make eyes for an alcoholic beverage (though Nate does call him on a cigarette), and large amounts of cute ensue.



"Backsliding, are we?" Nathan said, bending over the pool table to take his next shot. Shinobi blinked at him, the unlit cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and Nathan's lips twitched in a smile. "Or was I not supposed to comment?"

"No, you're allowed to comment," Shinobi replied after a moment, shaking himself and leaning lightly on his pool cue. "But I haven't lit it," he added with just a hint of defensiveness in his tone, returning his attention to the pool table. "Just had the one on Wednesday. It seemed safer than killing somebody."

"Mm-hm," Nathan said, sinking the ball into the pocket with ease. "I talked to that somebody today."

Shinobi arched an eyebrow, smiling wryly as he patiently waited his turn. Or, well, patiently watched Nathan play pool. "And how did that go, I wonder, as we've both run away from the school to wallow in a smokey pool hall?"

"Not well at all, but it's done. I am officially No Longer In Charge of a certain empath's educational process." His hands were a little unsteady, thinking of that conversation, but he took a deep breath and concentrated on the next ball. "Haven't heard from Amanda as to what she thinks of that yet."

"Would it be bad of me to say I envy you?" Shinobi asked, watching with a tired smile. "I still have to deal with him. At least for Club dealings. I can't get out of that."

"I'm not cherishing any illusions about not having to deal with him anymore," Nathan said, and grimaced as he missed the pocket. First time this game, though. Ah, well. "I told him he could ask for my help and I'd give it," he went on, straightening. "I owe both him and Amanda that much. But I'm done ramming my head into that particular brick wall."

"No more breaking your head," Shinobi agreed, straightening up and approaching the table. Ah, finally. Now to try and catch up. "I just wish I could step back and let Emma and Leonard worry about him so I didn't have to," he grumbled.

"Why can't you?" Nathan asked, retrieving his beer and standing back to watch.

"Our fathers are very similar people," Shinobi replied easily, most of his attention on the table as he leant over to sight a shot. "You know those mirrors they have at carnivals, where you look like you, but very distorted? It's like that."

"I'm surprised he hasn't called you on that," Nathan said, sipping his beer. "He's certainly been indignant enough these last few months about the fact that I had personal motivations for trying to help him, instead of it being just out of concern for his well-being."

Shinobi shrugged and took his shot, with a small sigh of relief as one of the balls went in. As much as he'd enjoyed watching.. "I haven't mentioned it. Haven't seen a need. Granted, that doesn't generally stop him, but.." Another shrug. "I'm just as happy that he hasn't brought it up. If he did, and took issue with it, I'm not entirely sure what would come of it."

Nathan rolled his head back and forth, rubbing at the back of his neck. Still so stiff. "Let's change the subject," he said with a sigh. "Otherwise I'm going to start brooding over whether there was any other way to handle this, and this was supposed to be about me lowering my stress levels."

"I'd say we could go somewhere to break things on the way home, but I'm not sure where we'd go for that," Shinobi mused, nodding in agreement. Okay. Subject change. "Have the Askani stopped trying to break your head with temporal physics yet?"

"Mmm. Then they started trying to lull me asleep with Shakespeare. It was odd. They've been..." Nathan paused, frowning a little as he sipped at his beer. "Odd. Since I... got back."

"They probably missed you," Shinobi smiled, glancing towards Nathan as he paced around the table to try and find another decent shot. "I'm sure they were just as afraid of losing you as the rest of us were, and just as relieved to have you back."

Nathan watched Shinobi move around the table, sizing up possible shots. "I still have trouble when I wake up," he murmured. "Only for a moment or two, but there's still that instant where I don't know where I am."

"I have that problem sometimes," Shinobi admitted, finally picking a spot and leaning over the table. "Usually after a particularly emotional day, good or bad. Half-expect to wake up back in Paris, like none of this ever happened. Or even down in the tunnels again."

The Askani piped up with half a dozen opinions on subjective versus objective time on the macro level and Nathan blinked, shaking his head. "At least I've stopped expecting the walls to shift when I'm awake," he said dryly. "Although stuff in my peripheral vision is still making me twitchy." He watched Shinobi line up the shot, knowing he'd make it. The ball hit the pocket, and Nathan grinned faintly. "One down... how many to go?"

"Lots?" Shinobi grinned, and plucked the unlit cigarette from his mouth to tuck it up behind an ear instead. Less tempting that way. "Glad to hear your head's improving. I do worry, you know."

"I know," Nathan said more quietly. "I can sense that... and I sensed it that night in the medlab. I don't think I can tell you..." He stopped, took a deep breath that was a little shaky. "I was so close to losing it entirely, Shinobi. "

Shinobi paused as he leant over the table again, shifting his aim to lightly poke the older man in the gut with the end of his pool cue. "But you didn't."

Nathan managed a half-hearted glare at him for the poke, but the glare was probably rather spoiled by the smile tugging helplessly at his lips. "Not through lack of trying on my part. Just a good thing MacInnis showed up when he did, I think..." He sighed. "Although it galls me to say that, given that they were planning to kill me."

"She was planning to kill you," Shinobi corrected, returning his aim to the table, where it belonged. "I seem to recall hearing he took great umbridge with the notion."

"Maybe," Nathan muttered. "But they were both planning to use me. I'm not feeling overly charitable." Beer. Definitely more beer, he thought as he drained his. "I'll be right back," he said, turning towards the bar. "You want anything else?"

"I'd ask for something with alcohol content, but I'm being bad enough already," Shinobi chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm okay for now. Ta."

He got himself another beer and came back to see Shinobi clear another ball. "Been reading the book?" he asked lightly, leaning back to watch.

"Whenever I get the chance to," Shinobi confirmed, looking up with a lopsided grin. "You were right. I do like it. And not just because it's more fun than planning courses, I promise."

"Once you're done, there's a quite good movie version of it with Sean Connery," Nathan said almost impishly. "Slims it down a fair bit, obviously, but I found it very enjoyable."

"Ooh, with Bond?" Shinobi brightened, tilting his head as he considered this. "I'll have to track it down once I'm done reading, definitely. That sounds fun."

"Moira and I watched it one Christmas. We were quite comprehensively snowed in for about three days, so we made use of the fireplace and the VCR." Nathan smiled a bit nostalgically, remembering. "I think I'm going to try and talk her into spending Christmas on Muir this year," he said. "Doubt I'll have to talk too fast, unless something disastrous comes up in December..."

"I think supervillains take December off," Shinobi replied thoughtfully, and grimaced as he missed his next shot. "We should be safe, I think."

"Whoops," Nathan said cheerfully, setting his beer aside and picking up his cue again. "And they'd damned well better. I owe her a mistletoe moment, take two. If I'd been less stubborn three years ago... well, who knows where we'd be now?"

"Enjoying your second honeymoon in the Bahamas?" Shinobi grinned cheerfully as he moved out of the way, reclaiming his previous spot to watch from.

"Quite possibly," Nathan said, then raised his head and gave Shinobi a thoughtful look as he lined up his shot. "Do you think I'd look stupid in a kilt?"

Shinobi blinked twice, very slowly tilting his head to one side. "It is very difficult to look stupid in a kilt," he said finally. "It is. I've tried. It didn't work."

"Mmm." Nathan sank the ball without difficulty, then straightened. "I've been seriously toying with the idea of staging our own little Highland Games sometime very soon and taking the opportunity to pop the question in front of everyone." He couldn't help the rather goofy grin. "I told her. Shouting it from the mountaintops."

"Can I take pictures?" Shinobi asked hopefully, his eyes lighting up. "If you do it, tell me I can take pictures. Copious pictures. Pictures to be blown up into poster sizes that I can give as a wedding gift."

"I'd be horribly disappointed if there weren't any pictures," Nathan said happily. "I want to be able to laugh at myself in twenty years."

"I promise I'll laugh at you in twenty years, if you want," Shinobi said reassuringly, batting his eyelashes. "I'll even get Dom to help. We'll make a day of it. The laughing, and the pointing, possibly mocking about the kilt even if you look good in it."

"That's the spirit." Nathan sank another ball, then moved around the table, eyeing his next shot. "And once my TK is back," he said with relish, "I'm going to make her ring."

"What're you going to make it out of?" Shinobi grinned, leaning comfortably against his pool cue. "Any stones for it?"

He probably sounded thoroughly silly. Overly romantic, at least, which was probably more or less the same thing. "I was doing some research while I was laying around slacking off on Wednesday," he said. "If I get a decent diamond, I can probably manage pretty easily to make one of those tension settings for it." Another ball in the pocket. "Titanium, I think," he said, straightening again. "It seems appropriate."

"Wonder if you could make your own diamond, given some coal," Shinobi mused, tilting his head in thought. "That would be sickeningly sweet."

Nathan grinned wryly. "Toyed with the idea. Then I thought about the forces that would be involved and... well, no. I'm not that good."

"Could try bribing Cain or Piotr into doing you a favour," he suggested, winking playfully. "Or I can just drag you out to look for pretty shiny rocks sometime. Either way."

"I think I'll just settle for picking out something particularly shiny," Nathan said with some regret. "She would probably kill me if I sprained my brain trying to make her a diamond."

"But she'd think you were cute while she killed you," Shinobi agreed, continuing to beam as he watched Nathan. "Whenever you want to go looking for pretty rocks, I can either come help, or distract her for the day for you."

"You know, that sounds like a plan. I should grab Amanda, too, when we go - I know she was both tickled and disturbed by the idea when she found on on Muir."

Shinobi grinned, nodding. "It's a fun combination to play with. Tickled and disturbed, I mean."

"I also," Nathan said more seriously, "need to make sure she feels included in this. To make absolutely certain that she doesn't think Moira and I are going to get wrapped up in each other and exclude her."

"Also that," Shinobi agreed, making a little bit of a face as he makes an abortive reach for his cigarette. No. "I did that once, with Sarah. No need for her to get it from any other angles."

"She's going to need us, you know," Nathan said, bending over the table again. "Every bit as much if not more than she would have if she and Manuel hadn't... well, I'm not going to think too hard about whatever she and Manuel did, because I'm an old prude."

"Wacky fun," Shinobi agreed mournfully, rubbing at the nape of his neck with a tired sigh. "And I know she is. I haven't been there before, but I intend to be now, if she'll let me."

"I keep hearing that kicking one's self in the ass over what's already said and done is largely pointless," Nathan observed innocently. "Of course, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the concept, but it's an interesting one, don't you think?"

Shinobi gave Nathan an amused look. "I'm not kicking myself. I may be flexible, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't reach. I'm.." How to phrase it. "..well. It's that tunnel vision thing we'd spoken about, when we just got back. Things I should have accepted and moved on from ages ago are only now getting a chance to be absorbed and dealt with."

"Considering that a good half of most of my sessions with Jack are dealing with things that happened before I ever wound up at Mistra, I'm not about to scoff at you for being a bit behind the 'dealing' curve." Nathan shook his head at the pool table, not seeing a good shot.

"We're a lovely pair, aren't we?" Shinobi chuckled. "Probably why we get along." He paused as he noticed Nathan's trouble, and turned his attention to the pool table with a thoughtful tilt of his head. "Whups. Did I box you in?"

Nathan gave him a deadpan look. "Give me a minute," he said dryly, going around to look at the table from another angle. "Damn, this would be easier if my vision would stop doing the doubling-thing every so often."

Shinobi nodded sagely, content to give Nathan as much time as he needed. The longer out of the house, after all, the better. "Not concussed, are you?" he asked curiously, focusing on the man rather than the game. "I can imagine spraining your brain might give off some of the same symptoms."

"Not concussed. Just swelling in very bad places to have swelling, apparently - you know, I'd never really stopped to think about the actual physical side effects of overexertion before?" Nathan took a shot, missed, and grimaced, coming back over for his beer.

"I try not to think about them," Shinobi mused, patting Nathan on the arm before starting for the table again. He knew exactly where he was going. "I try to focus on avoiding them so I don't have to think about them. I had a pretty good run on that."

"Paul and I have been talking about that. Why I seem to feel the need to overexert myself on a regular basis, I mean." Nathan watched Shinobi line up his shot. "I don't really know how to pace myself. I've never had the opportunity or the need to learn."

Shinobi made a thoughtful noise, pausing to take his shot before he responded. "It does take practice.. I'm fairly sure I'm still getting the hang of it, myself, though Scott would have a better idea than I would. I'm not a very objective judge of my own habits, try as I might."

"Another relic of my early training, I suppose. If you didn't perform up to your capacity and they caught you at it..." Nathan paused, then shrugged. "Well, sufficiently bad things happened that we learned pretty quickly that you didn't hold back."

"We just need to get your head to really grasp the fact that what you do now isn't what you did then," Shinobi replied carefully, not entirely willing to spell things out more plainly in such a public place. "Finding your limits and respecting them is important. Push them with help, but in moderation. That kind of thing."

"That's why Haroun got to me so badly last weekend, you know," Nathan said seriously. "I was - well, in a rather impressive amount of pain as we were landing on Friday. Enough that I basically told Scott no when he asked me if I could help." His gaze went a bit distant. "I did help with the landing, though, in the end. Although Haroun did most of the work." He shook his head, telling himself to stop obsessing over the subject. "So are you still interested in the rock-climbing?" he asked more briskly. "Paul and I have found a really nice place to do it."

"It does sound like fun," Shinobi admitted, looking over his shoulder. "And probably not a bad idea for other reasons, too. If you haven't, you might suggest to Scott that he make a team thing out of it. Trust exercise."

Nathan laughed suddenly, wryly, remembering the suggestion Paul had made on the climb yesterday. "It does sort of necessitate a certain amount of trust," he said. "Hank came with us yesterday. We had a good time."

Shinobi grinned brightly. "Impossible not to have a good time with Hank, I suspect," he grinned, taking another shot, and cursing under his breath as his aim proved to be slightly off. "Bugger. I think this game's yours."

"Of course it is," Nathan said blithely. "I warned you. Although you did passably well, junior."

"Oh, passably well," Shinobi chuckled, looking up with an amused smile. "Gawrsh. Thanks, old man."

"Credit where credit's due," Nathan said innocently. "Now, do you want to learn how I can beat the pants off someone with luck powers?"

"Math?" Shinobi asked, equally innocent as he backed away from the table. "Seriously, though, very interested in learning. I want to shark her next time she's here."

Nathan's eyes went very wide at the mental image. "Only if I can bring a camera," he said finally. "Photographic memories are all well and good, but that... that needs to be shared."